Trentin seals Vuelta treble

Tomares : Italian sprinter Matteo Trentin claimed his third win of the Vuelta a Espana on stage 13 as Chris Froome finished safely among the chasing pack to retain his overall lead yesterday.

Quick-Step rider Trentin continued his dominance of the few sprint stages of the largely mountainous three-week trek around Spain by pipping compatriot Gianni Moscon and Denmark’s Soren Kragh Andersen to the line in a time of 4hr 25min 13sec.

Trentin was also victorious on stages four and 10 as Quick-Step have now won five stages in total.

“It’s amazing, I came to this race with confidence but never expected anything like this,” said Trentin.

“For the team the Vuelta is not finished and we are betting for more.”

Froome lost time due to a mechanical problem and a crash in Thursday’s 12th stage, but he stayed alert near the front of the peloton to finish seventh on the day on the 198.4km ride from Coin to Tomares.

The Briton, who is aiming to become just the third rider to win the Tour de France and Vuelta in the same year, retains a 59-second lead over Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali.

Today’s stage promises another showdown between the race favourites with a gruelling uncategorised climb to end the 175km ride from Ecija to Sierra de La Pandera.

“It’s very difficult to predict what is going to happen in this Vuelta. As we saw yesterday things can change so quickly,” said Froome.

“Tomorrow’s final is very steep. I expect guys like Alberto Contador and Vincenzo Nibali want to make up time at this stage of the race.

“I expect a very aggressive ride from them.”

Another summit finish also awaits on the Sierra Nevada on Sunday and Froome is expecting this weekend to be decisive in his quest to finally win the Vuelta after three second-placed finishes.

“Sunday’s stage is going to be even harder again up in the Sierra Nevada, over 2,500 metres,” he added. “For sure at the end of a really tough week, we are going to see some really big time gaps in these next two stages.”