Vuelta Skelter: Cousin catastrophe

After a spattering of flat finishes, uphill sprints and some Cat.3 ramps, the Vuelta finally got serious on Friday with a major Cat.1 summit finish that looked destined to shake up the overall standings and provide some fireworks.

And it did not let us down, with enough movers and shakers on the GC – including some very big names – as well as one rider’s most embarrassing moment since growing an ill-advised moustache.

Without further Aru, let’s take a look at the flips and the flops of stage seven…

You’ve been on the attack all day. You’ve been the driving force of the break, setting the tempo up the final climb and putting in the first big attack with 6km remaining. You’re on the hunt for a new contract what with the future of your team still very much in the balance. You’re entering the final 500m of the first major mountain-top of the Vuelta and you have a one-in-three chance of taking the biggest win of your career…

What don’t you do?

Touching wheels with the rider in front of you and hitting the deck would be quite high up on anyone’s list.

It was terrible luck for the 26-year-old Frenchman, who looked the most consistently strong on the final climb in relation to those with whom he would have contested the final sprint.

You could say it was Cousin’s most cringeworthy moment since, er, this…

But more seriously, it could have been a lifeline for Jean-Rene Bernaudeau’s team. Or perhaps it would have been too little, too late…

Look carefully at that video of Cousin’s fall and you’ll see the Dutchman Lindeman doing his best Jan Ullrich impression to avoid his sprawling rival (this time not Lance Armstrong on Luz Ardiden, but Cousin on the Alto de Capileira).

Lindeman showed remarkable dexterity to avoid the tumbling Europcar rider 500m from the finish – and then some real bite to reply to Ilia Koshevoy’s subsequent attack.

But the most impressive thing about the LottoNL-Jumbo rider’s biggest career win was the way he kept on getting back from the metaphorical canvas after being floored but the succession of jabs by both Cousin and Koshevoy on the final climb.

Oddly, Lindeman didn't seem very happy about the victory afterwards. In fact, he seemed decidedly underwhelmed by the whole thing.

The Sicilian would have taken note at how Alberto Contador struggled in the Tour de France following his victory in the Giro d’Italia – and as soon as he saw his big rival Chris Froome in trouble, he was only ever going to attack.

Such is the current wrath with Astana, it was a surprise that cycling fans on social media didn’t lead some kind of campaign against Aru for breaking some kind of unwritten rule by attacking while the ‘patron’ of the peloton was in difficulty.

But if today’s anything to go by, Aru’s patron credentials are higher than those of his British counterpart in Spain. We’re less than a week in and already Aru – fresh from not riding the Tour – has seen off his internal challengers and put paid to the leadership question at Astana. Is the 25-year-old now the big favourite to wear the red jersey in Madrid?

You can tell it’s been a bad day in the office when most media outlets bandy around the word “cracks” while Sky prefer the phrase “limits his losses”.

Either way, Froome struggled with both the heat and the length of Friday’s 20km long final climb, the Alto de Capiliera. Dropping out of the top ten was a reminder that the Froome were seeing now is very different from the one in yellow back in July.

But it’s far from over. The minute or so he trails his rivals can be made up by the Briton in a quarter of the time trial, while he’s clearly adapting to the conditions and riding back into form, rather than entering the race at the same level that he displayed in the Tour.

Froome’s wobble will have given his rivals a huge psychological lift, however. Whatever happens, he’s got a real fight on his hand.

He was the unknown quantity of the break, but didn’t the 24-year-old neo-pro do well? Battling back after being distanced at least twice on the final climb, Belarusian prospect Koshevoy at one point looked like he had the win in the bag.

The Lampre-Merida rider was lucky not to come down when Cousin clipped his wheel with 500m to go – and in the end his efforts caught up with him. But second place on a major mountain stage when you’ve yet to turn full professional is quite some feat. His team were impressed, too.

If Froome had a bad day then the American had a right stinker, losing almost a minute to Aru and his rivals after coming home in 28th place.