Vuelta a Espana 2016: Stage 9 – De La Cruz’s first pro win gets him red as well

If there’s one thing that makes VeloVoices Towers ring with cheers, it’s the sight of a rider winning their first professional stage – especially when it’s in a Grand Tour. Today, the cheers rang out even louder as Etixx’s David De La Cruz not only took his first professional win, he also went into the leader’s jersey of his home country’s Grand Tour. IAM Cycling’s Dries Devenyns’ slight hesitation in the final 600m meant he finished 27secs behind the Spanish winner while Moreno Moser from Cannondale came in third. All the GC contenders came in together so they just nudged down one to make room for De La Cruz at the top.

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Vuelta a Espana 2016: Stages 1-8 Final KM

What a week we have had in Galicia. From the opening team time trial to the duel on La Camperona, La Vuelta a Espana has served a host of  spicy tapas to tempt our Grand Tour appetites. We’ve had drama. We’ve seen heart-breaking nearly wins. We’ve lived through heart-stopping ascents and emotional victories – and we haven’t reached the first rest day yet!
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Vuelta a Espana 2016: Stage 8 – Lagutin makes the grade, Quintana rockets to red

We’ve had newbies take their first GT stage this week – today we had a veteran. Katusha’s Sergey Lagutin climbed the wall of Alto de la Camperona and slo-mo sprinted away from his companions Axel Domont (Ag2r) and Perrig Quemeneur (Direct Energie) to take his first Grand Tour victory at the age of 35. The GC was shook up with an attack by Nairo Quintana (yes, really!) that put the Colombian in the red jersey.

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