The Vuelta gave up on flat stages and headed up again, in a manner that suited most of the riders in the race. The key moments were a day of both joy and pain for the Irish as Saturday say Dan Martin pulled out following a crash on Friday that left him lacking much of his skin and with a head injury that made his Garmin Sharp team doctor take him off the road.
On the same day Irish honour was held up as Nicolas Roche hung on hard for a third place finish at on a hill-top finale, unable to beat the stage winner, Konig, but putting enough time between him and Nibali to take his first Grand Tour Leader's jersey. He led the race into Sunday's stage, where British Grand Tour débutante, Luke Rowe showed himself in a breakaway that stayed out until 16km to go and then, after a stab by Boassen-Hagen, it was Moreno who took the stage. Roche lost the race lead by one second to the the man from Katusha, but has established himself as a rider in the fight.
Elsewhere the mountain bike and trials world championships were playing out in South Africa. It's in downhill where the British interest is strongest and the thrills biggest. Some great racing in the women's race set up a challenge for Rachel Atherton, who came down last after a scorching seeding run. The 2008 world champion was more than up to the task and smashed through to a win by over 8 seconds. She was pleased to win back the stripes.
WORRRDD UP!!! Hasn't sunk in that I'm Finally World Champion again... All I can say is THANK YOU to everyone everywhere in the whole world!!
— rachel atherton (@rachelatherton) September 1, 2013
In the men's race the super fast pedally course saw Jared Graves set the early fast time on an enduro bike, before Mick Hannah finally took the lead away with a mega-fast ride and 5 riders still to come down the mountain. Sam Hill could have put more Australians on the podium, but crashed fast and hard to end his race, just before Minnaar hit his home hill in an effort to defend his 2012 World title. Greg took the lead by a small fraction with a super stylish top section and some brutal power in the bottom section. This left on-form Steve Smith and Gee Atherton to come. Smith shocked everyone with a crash on the first turn and cruised and styled if down, with his day over.
Atherton was much more tentative than Minnaar's at the top and he came in well back on the South African's time, as he looked slow and dropped to seventh. Minnaar took a massively popular home win and defends his stripes, with Hannah in second, Graves in third and Matt Simmonds the best placed Brit in 5th, although at the Worlds there's really only one place that counts.
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