Is there anything Alejandro Valverde can?t do? After outsprinting Hushovd on Monday, on Wednesday the versatile Spaniard outgunned the time triallists for his second stage win - and the lead.
It has to be said that if there was ever going to be a medium-length time trial that Valverde could win, it was this one.
With barely a metre of flat on the narrow, twisting, poorly surfaced roads, not to mention intermittent rainstorms, the course had more in common with an Ardennes Classic than a Dauphine Libere time trial.
Ardennes Classics are definitely an in-house speciality of Valverde?s. Clad in the leader?s yellow-and-blue jersey, the double Liege winner said afterwards that - for once - on Wednesday he had felt completely at home in a time trial as well.
?The first 20 kilometres were more like a hill-climb than anything else.? the Caisse D?Epargne pro pointed out afterward. ?I?ve always been good at those.?
?Then there was a really technical descent, that suited me too. On top of that, going through the checkpoints in first place early on was a real boost to my morale. I could dig so deep because I knew I was up for a result.
Winning time trials is something that I definitely don?t do very often - and coming so close to the Tour, I?m very pleased, if a bit surprised.?
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?I?ve been improving steadily though at time trials, though, and today is another step in that direction.?
Third in the opening prologue, Valverde was the only rider to go under 45 minutes for the rolling course set deep in the hills round grimy St. Etienne.
Just two other riders, Levi Leipheimer (Astana) and Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto),at 19 and 20 seconds respectively, came anywhere close to Valverde, with fourth-place Mikel Astarloza (Euskaltel-Euskadi) a minute back. Belgian Maxime Monfort (Cofidis), a promising young stage race specialist already being compared to Eddy Merckx (!) back home in Belgium, took fifth.
Overall, the Spaniard now has a 23 second cushion over Leipheimer and 37 seconds over Evans. He can expect challenges from both in the four mountainous stages to come, but Valverde?s strong point when stage racing has always been his climbing. Now it seems, the versatile Spaniard has another card in his pack - middle distance time trials.
?This win is more important in terms of morale than it is in terms of Alejandro?s progress at time trialling.? Caisse D?Epargne sports director Eusebio Unzue insisted.
?It was a course which favoured him a great deal, and where bike handling skills were more important than churning a big gear. If you look at the splits, he wasn?t so good at the end, where the course wasn?t so technical.?
?As for the overall, we?ll try and defend it - but we?ll need to find an ally or two to do that.?
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