Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) confirmed his status as the strongest rider in the Vuelta a Espana when he won the final big mountain stage after an amazing battle with Chris Froome (Sky). The Brit made several attacks and briefly seemed to have distanced his rival but Contador bounced back before launching his own acceleration inside the final kilometre to take the stage win and seal the overall victory.

 

Going into the penultimate stage of the Vuelta a Espana, all was set for one of the biggest battles between in recent grand tour history, with Chris Froome planning to launch a big attack on race leader Alberto Contador. The stage fully lived up to expectations and when the dust had settled after the memorable stage, Contador had proved that he is the strongest rider and a deserved winner of the race.

 

However, Contador came under a lot of pressure as Froome launched repeated accelerations in a quest to shake off his rival. At one point, he was clearly in difficulty, losing a few metres, but the Tinkoff-Saxo rider gauged his effort perfectly and managed to rejoin the Brit.

 

Sky did nothing to hide that Froome was on a mission as they rode hard on the front almost all day and on the final climb it was an impressive Philip Deignan who whittled the group down to just 9 riders. However, the British team didn’t respond when Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) launched a strong attack.

 

At one point, it seemed that Froome was on a bad day as he allowed Rodriguez to build an advantage of 30 seconds while he just traded pulls with Alejandro Valverde (Movistar). However, he was just biding his time and suddenly he launched the big attack that everybody was waiting for.

 

While Valverde was glued to his wheel, Contador briefly seemed to struggle but he managed to rejoin his two rivals. Moments later, Valverde blew up while Contador and Froome bridged the gap to Rodriguez.

 

Froome set a brutal pace on the steep slopes and for a long time Rodriguez dug extremely deep to stay with the two best riders in the race. Finally, however, he had to surrender and from there it was a two-rider battle.

 

Contador never took a turn while Froome launched repeated attacks. However, Contador never gave him one inch of an advantage and when they passed the flamme rouge, it was clear that Contador would win the race overall.

 

However, the stage win was still up for grabs and Froome made another two strong accelerations. When he sat down after the second one, Contador showed that he was the strongest rider, launching a powerful solo attack and quickly got a big gap.

 

A clearly exhausted race leader crossed the line to take a memorable solo win while Froome followed 16 seconds later. Valverde had gauged his efforts perfectly to pass Rodriguez and significantly comforted his position in third by taking third on the stage.

 

Contador now leads Froome by 1.37 as he goes into the final stage which is a short 9.7km time trial in Santiago de Compostela. Barring disaster, the Spaniard will win the race overall while Froome will try to make one final attempt at winning a stage in the final rand tour of the season.

 

A tough mountain stage

After a day for the sprinters, it was back into the GC mode for the final big mountain stage of the Vuelta a Espana. The course brought the riders over 185.7km from Santo Estevo de Ribas de Sil to a mountaintop finish on Puerto de Ancares. The first half of the race was rolling with no categorized climbs but the second half was really brutal. A category 2 and a category 3 climb preceded the difficult finale where the riders went up a category 1 climb and the final HC climb to the finish.

 

Three riders who finished yesterday’s stake didn’t take the start. Dario Cataldo (Sky) crashed on the final descent and on medical advice, he was taken out of the race. Filippo Pozzato (Lampre-Merida) and Pieter Serry (OPQS) also left the race just one day before the finish in Santiago de Compostela.

 

Many attacks

The riders headed out on a cloudy day and the pace was fast right from the start. Belkin and MTN-Qhuebka were the first to launch attack but after 6km of racing, the group was still together.

 

A four-rider group finally got a small gap before 8 riders set off in pursuit. Meanwhile, the peloton was riding so fast that it split into two and the second group had lost 20 seconds to the first one.

 

The peloton splits

The breaks were both caught while Luis Leon Sanchez (Caja Rural) suffered a very untimely mechanical. Meanwhile, Christophe Le Mevel (Cofidis) and Danilo Wyss (BMC) launched an attack but they were brought back a little later.

 

The peloton was still divided into two groups but after 30km of very fast racing, the second group finally made the junction. 5km later, the elastic finally snapped when Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre-Merida), Maxime Mederel (Europcar) and Jerome Coppel (Cofidis) got clear and while they fought hard to build a bigger advantage, they were joined by Wout Poels (OPQS).

 

The break extends its advantage

After 43km of racing, they were 55 seconds ahead and now they appeared to have won the battle. The peloton slowed down and the gap quickly reached 5.28 at the 59km mark.

 

This is the final chance for Caja Rural to win a stage and as the Spanish team had missed the move, they started to chase. However, they were not going really fast and at the 70km mark, they had allowed the gap to grow to 7.40.

 

Caja Rural loses ground

Caja Rural continued to lose ground and when the gap had reached 10.33, Sky decided to kick into action. While Coppel beat Poels and Niemiec in the first intermediate sprint, the British team started to chase and with the help from Astana, they brought the gap down to 8.50 at the 100km mark.

 

Jacopo Guarnieri, Andrey Zeits (both Astana) and Luke Rowe (Sky) did the early work and as they went up the first climb, they brought the gap further down. When Poels led Mederel over the top, the three riders had reduced their deficit to just 6.47.

 

Sky tighten the screws

Just as they started the descent and this prompted the peloton to take it very easy. The escapees benefited from the wet conditions to extend their advantage to more than 7 minutes but when the riders again reached dry roads, Rowe, Guarnieri and Zeits again upped the pace.

 

When Niemiec led Coppel and Mederel over the top, the advantage was just 5.50 and there was no slowing down for the peloton. On the other hand, Sky tightened the screws when they hit a small uncategorized climbs, gathered their troops on the front and asked Rowe to up the pace.

 

Poels is dropped

While the peloton exploded, Rowe led the peloton over the summit and when they started the penultimate climb, the escapees were just 2.45. While Poels was dropped from the front group, Rowe took a few more turns before Vasil Kiryienka took over.

 

The strong Belarusian made the peloton explode to pieces while Mederel launched an attack from the front group. Niemiec rejoined him and a little later the front trio was back together.

 

Niemiec takes off

Just before the top, Kiryienka and so it was Kanstantsin Siutsou who did the final work to the top where the gap was just 49 seconds. Niemiec took maximum points, leading Coppel and Mederel over the top.

 

Niemiec dropped his rivals on a small climb but Coppel passed him on the descent. While Mederel fell back to the peloton, the front duo found back together and started the final climb together.

 

Bonus seconds for Froome

Peter Kennaugh led the peloton all the way down the descent and continued to ride hard on the lower slopes of the climb. While Niemiec dropped Coppel, Siutsou took over and the Belarusian brought Coppel back into the fold.

 

Froome sprinted ahead to pick up two bonus seconds in the final intermediate sprint before Deignan took over the pace-setting. The Irishman brought Niemiec back and now the peloton was exploding.

 

Deignan makes the group explode

Suddenly, only Froome, Deignan, Contador, Jesus Hernandez (Tinkoff), Rodriguez, Valverde, Warren Barguil (Giant), Fabio Aru (Astana) and Giampaolo Caruso (Katusha) were left and this was the signal for Rodriguez to attack. While Deignan continued to set the pace, Rodriguez built an advantage of 20 seconds.

 

Valverde had to react and he launched an attack with Barguil on his wheel. Froome reacted slowly with Contador on his wheel and with Aru in third position, they caught Valverde who had dropped Barguil.

 

Froome briefly drops Contador

While Froome and Valverde traded pulls on the front, Rodriguez increased his advantage and for a moment he seemed to be riding away with the stage win. However, Froome now made his first attack which reduced the gap to less than 15 seconds while Aru was dropped.

 

The Italian rejoined the group but like Contador, he lost contact when Froome tried again. Only Contador managed to rejoin the Brit and moments later Valverde blew up.

 

Contador solos clear

Froome paced his way back to Rodriguez who managed to stay with the two best riders for more than a kilometre. Froome made several accelerations but Contador responded every time.

 

Valverde caught Rodriguez and easily accelerated past him before the Katusha leader fell back to Aru. From there it was a battle between Froome and Contador but Froome never managed to drop Contador.

 

Instead, Contador countered Froome’s final attack with 600m to go and soloed clear to take the stage win. Valverde took third while Rodriguez made a final attack to drop Aru and finish the stage in fourth.