The top 3 cyclists in the Vuelta a Espana battled for the stage win at the mountaintop finish at Ordino Arcalis on Monday with Spaniard Francisco Mancebo beating his rivals.
Mancebo (Illes Balears) outsprinted overall race leader Denis Menchov (Rabobank) and 3-time Vuelta champ Roberto Heras (Liberty Seguros) to the finish of the 128-mile bicycle course that crested two Category-1 and one Category-2 mountain passes.
Menchov keeps the overall leader's golden jersey and Heras remains 47 seconds behind after failing to dislodge Menchov on several attacks on the final climb. Mancebo's effort moves him into 3rd place, 1-minute and 53 seconds behind the leader.
US cyclist Tom Danielson (Discovery Channel) finished 1-minute and 16 seconds behind Mancebo and fell back one place to 6th. Meanwhile, Discovery teammate Manuel Beltran (Spain) finished in 6th place on the stage, and moved up from 11th to 8th place in the overall standings. A report on the Vuelta and full results are at CyclingNews.
Mancebo is having a good year. The Spanish rider finished just off the podium in fourth place in this year's Tour de France, finishing nearly 10 minutes behind Armstrong. In spite of his high finish in the Tour de France, this was Mancebo's first stage win in a major tour, according to the BBC.
The mountains continue on Tuesday, with one Category-1 and three Category-2 summits, as well as another mountaintop finish at Cerler over a 115-mile route.
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