Omega Pharma - Quick-Step Cycling Team rider Wout Poels refused to settle for a select group finale at the 151km queen stage of Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco on Thursday.
Poels relentlessly attacked a select group on the final Cat. 1 climb of the day, with riders such as Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo), Cadel Evans, Tejay van Garderen and Samuel Sanchez (BMC Racing Team), Simon Spilak (Katusha), and Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Merida) hoping to contest the stage and perhaps improve their GC positions.
Michal Kwiatkowski of OPQS was also in the group, having been led into the climb on the front with an unselfish, hard effort by Tony Martin. Kwiatkowski was protected perfectly by the whole team approaching the climb as well.
Contador attacked several times with Valverde, but those were all brought back. Poels also launched some accelerations of his own. He was eventually able to follow the wheel Simon Spilak (Katusha) along with Thibaut Pinot (FDJ.fr) with 3.4km to go. They got a small gap on the Contador group that emerged behind, which included Kwiatkowski. Suddenly, Poels saw his chance for a solo win at about 3 kilometers left in the stage. He stayed seated, but picked up his tempo and was able to get a small gap. By the time Poels crested the climb for the descent to the finish line, he had a 13" gap with 2.2km to go.
The chase group behind gained some ground, cutting the gap to about 8 or 9 seconds with 1.5km to go. However, thanks to both the strong legs of Poels and an unselfish Kwiatkowski controlling the chase group behind, the gap went back up to 10" and he held his advantage to the end. In addition to the win of Poels, Kwiatkowski still managed a 15th place finish out of the select chase group.
The fantastic solo victory of Dutch rider Poels is the 21st for OPQS, in three disciplines, in 2014.
"It was a long, difficult stage," Poels said. "From kilometer zero until the finish the pace was really fast. But, the team worked really well and they controlled the race. The goal today was to try and move up a bit in the GC and, why not, see if there was a possibility to win the stage. In the final we were there playing with Kwiatkowski also there. Contador attacked and his efforts were really strong. But at a certain moment Contador, Valverde, and a few others started to look at each other. So I tried to take advantage of this situation and I went. I knew the final from last year as I raced here a year ago. I knew it was possible to pass the final climb and go to the finish. So, I went for it. When you have a good condition you are also able to take the right decision in a short time. So, that's exactly what happened today. I am super happy about it. This is absolutely the most important victory of my career. I am super happy about it because after the big crashes I had at the Tour a few years ago I was able to come back. Now I am here, with this great team, and I won. So, I am over the moon. I've had a good feeling since the beginning of the season. I tried to be useful for the team when it's necessary and when I have a chance like today I try to grab it with both hands. Tomorrow we will see. It's another difficult stage. We'll see how we recover from today's stage. The goal is to try to defend my position and work together with Kwiatkowski, and then we will see. But, it won't be easy. We'll do our best."
Carlos Verona was involved in a crash on a downhill section, landing on his left wrist. Tonight the team will make further evaluations.
