Published on : 10/28/2020
The leader of Cofidis keeps his distinctive jersey despite the battle between the favorites for the overall victory. Just like Luis Angel Maté and José Herrada, the whole team worked hard to support Guillaume Martin. Tomorrow, there will be a sprint where Emmanuel Morin will have a card to play.
There was something to cheer us up this morning in Logroño. A lot of spectators had come to the start - masked but enthusiastic - and Guillaume Matin showed the first distinctive jersey of his career on a Big Tour. After that, it was time to get back on the road and the sun was for once in the sky. On the program today: around 80 km of flat terrain in the vineyards of Logroño before two climbs of 2nd and 1st category.
3 points to keep the jersey
After a completely unrestrained stage, the scenario of the day was much more typical with a breakaway that was caught again on the final climb. For Cofidis, the objective was to protect the polka-dot jersey of Guillaume Martin. All his team-mates helped him, in particular Luis Angel Maté and José Herrada.
On the final climb, Guillaume managed to spare his efforts. The battle between the favorites for the final victory was good for him to keep his jersey of best climber. Thus, he keeps 3 points of advance in front of American Sepp Kuss (27 pts against 24 pts). The rider from Normandy has therefore taken back the podium and the guarantee to keep the jersey for one more day.
Tomorrow, the peloton will set off towards the west of the country. The riders will have 157,7 km to go between Castrillo del Val and Aguilar de Campoo. The stage doesn't have any major difficulties and should end in a massive sprint, the second one since the beginning of this Vuelta. Emmanuel Morin, 9th in the first sprint, will have at heart to do well again, he has just signed a contract extension with the Cofidis team. His team-mates will do everything they can to help him achieve this.
GUILLAUME MARTIN SAID...
"It was a slightly quieter day than yesterday, with a more classic race scenario: I was able to remain in the peloton throughout the day and stay concentrated in the final. Thanks to Luis (Angel Maté) and José (Herrada),
I was careful on the penultimate climb to avoid being trapped. On the final climb, I did a decent climb without being completely at full speed when I saw that it wasn't possible to score any points in the mountain classification.
I didn't push myself too hard in order to be prepared for the next few days. So today, I keep the jersey and that' s the most important thing for me. There will be two rather quiet days to keep the jersey. After that, we will have to make sure to keep it for the week-end and why not try to take a stage victory.”