Nairo Quintana (Movistar) lived up to expectations in the big queen stage of the Vuelta a Burgos as he made a late attack to distance all rivals on the feared climb up to the nature park Lagunas de Neila. Having made up a very strong quartet with Vincenzo Nibali (Astana), Ivan Basso (Cannondale) and David Arroyo (Caja Rural), the Colombian left his companions behind on the steepest part to not only take the stage win but also the overall victory ahead of Arroyo and Nibali.

Nairo Quintana was seen as the big favourite to win the Vuelta a Burgos and the Colombian didn't disappoint. Having lost a few seconds in some of the punchy finishes in the early part of the race, the Tour runner-up took back all of his time loss with a well-timed attack on the steepest part of the Lagunas de Neila climb.

Quintana had used his teammates to whittle down the peloton over the early climbs and when the going got tough on the final ascent to the finish, four riders emerged as the strongest. Quintana was joined by Vuelta contenders David Arroyo, Vincenzo Nibali and Ivan Basso in a front quartet that left all their rivals behind.

Numerous attacks were unsuccessful until Quintana finally launched a devastating acceleration with around 1km to go. He quickly overtook Arroyo who had been a little ahead and from there, the Colombian never looked back. He soloed across the line to take a marvelous win while Arroyo and Basso joined forces to finish 2nd and 3rd on the day.

The time gains were enough for Quintana to dispose overnight leader Anthony Roux (FDJ) from his top position and so the Movistar rider is the winner of the 2013 Vuelta a Burgos. Arroyo and Nibali completed the podium and both showed that they are ready for the Vuelta which starts in less than two weeks.

For Quintana, this was the final race in this part of the season and while most of his Burgos rivals head to the Vuelta, he will take a well-earned rest before starting his preparations for the world championships.

The queen stage

The 170km stage to Lagunas de Neila was the traditional queen stage of the mountainous Spanish race and it was set to produce a major shake-up of a GC that had until now been very close. The first part was mostly flat but 4 big climbs loomed in the final part of the race, culminating with the HC climb to the finish.

As it is often the case in mountain stages, the race was off to an extremely aggressive start and the FDJ team of overall leader Roux had a hard time controlling the many attacks. After 18km, a dangerous move involved Carlos Barbero (Euskadi), Daniele Ratto (Cannondale), Daniel Teklehaimanot (Orica-GreenEdge), Valerio Agnoli (Astana) and Edwin Avila (Colombia) but as the former was too close to the overall lead, it was brought back Instead, an 11-rider group got a gap but as Nicolas Edet (13th on GC) was in there, that break was also neutralized.

 A big group goes clear

The next escape was a very big one involving Jan Barta and Iker Camano (NetApp-Endura), Federico Canuti and Paolo Longo Borghini (Cannondale), Xabier Zandio (Sky), Tristan Valentin (Cofidis), Matteo Montaguti (Ag2r), Christian Meier (Orica- GreenEdge), Arman Kamyshev (Astana) , Aritz Bagües and Unai Iparraguirre (Euskadi), Pablo Urtasun (Euskaltel), Jarlinson Pantano and Edwin Avila (Colombia) and Jose Ivan Gutierrez (Movistar). The group gained as much as 19 seconds before being brought back by the peloton.

On the day's first climb, Ben Gastauer (Ag2r) and Robinson Chalapud (Colombia) attacked and they were joined by Amets Txurruka (Caja Rural) who was on a mission to defend his mountains jersey. Francesco Failli (Vini Fantini) and Igor Merino (Euskadi) set off in pursuit while Txurruka crested the summit in first position.

The break is formed

Those 5 riders came together and now form the day's early break. They had built up a gap of a little more than 2 minutes when Movistar of race favourite Quintana started to bring it back. The gap came down to 1.43 but then the Spanish tea slowed a little down and allowed the gap to grow up to 2.45.

The Spanish team had a clear plan and accelerated hard whenever the road pointed upwards while they took it more easy on the flatter sections. At a time where the gap was less than 2 minutes, Luis Mas (Burgos) made an attempt to bridge across and for a long time, the Spaniard dangled in between the front group and the peloton.

Movistar brings it back together

The first time up the gruelling climb to the finish, Movistar decided that it was time to really accelerate and as a consequence, the peloton shattered to pieces. Mas was the first to be brought in and a little later it was also over for the front group. However, Txurruka had picked up enough KOM points to secure his win in the mountains competition.

Just before the summit Mikel Bizkarra (Euskadi) attacked but the Basque was brought back on the first part of the descent. Quintana still had three riders to support him and it was Giovanni Visconti and Sylwester Szmyd who did all the work on the descent while Jose Herrada was saved for later.

A small group of favourites

The 4 Movistar riders were joined by Sergei Chernetskii (Katusha), Giampaolo Caruso (Katusha), Basso, Cayetano Sarmiento (Cannondale), Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel), Mikel Landa (Euskaltel), Nibali, Paolo Tiralongo (Astana), Arroyo, Andre Cardoso (Caja Rural), Chalapud, Failli and Bizkarra in what was now a decimated group of favourites. Mikael Cherel (Ag2r) bridged across on the descent to also make sure that Ag2r had a rider in the group.

Visconti led the peloton on the first part of the climb and set a pace that was fast enough to discourage any attacks. With 6,5km, he finally fell off and then it was left to Szmyd wo continue the pace-setting which forced Chalapud and Failli to also fall off the pace.

The first attack

With 5,4km to go, Cardoso launched the first attack. Movistar had to react and so put Herrada on the front while Szmyd and Sanchez now fell off the pace.

Tiralongo was the next to try a move and he was joined by Sarmiento. However, Herrada brought the duo back into the fold a few moments later.

Nibali attacks

That was when Nibali accelerated and only Quintana could stay in his wheel. Basso used his usual steady tempo to get back on while behind Landa, Arroyo, Caruso, Tiralongo and Sarmiento formed a chase group.

Arroyo made an acceleration and tried to get up to the front trio. Just as he was about to make it, Nibali kicked again but as he was unable to drop his rivals, he slowed down, thus allowing Arroyo to bridge across.

Arroyo launches a move

Arroyo even had enough left in the tank to make his own attack but when Nibali accelerated a little later, the Spaniard was brought back into the fold. Quintana was the next to try a move but had no success.

Instead, Basso and Nibali now started to set a hard pace while Quintana and Arroyo were happy to stay behind. Wit 2km to go, Arroyo made another attack and as no one reacted, he built up a 20-second gap.

Basso working hard

Basso was now setting the pace in the chase group until Nibali took things into his own hands by launching a fierce acceleration. Quintana was, however, able to stay in his wheel and instead the Colombian countered the move.

This time Nibali had no answer and the Colombian quickly overtook Arroyo who fell back to Nibali. Those two combined forces for a short while until Nibali had to let his Spanish rival go.

No one was, however, able to catch Quintana who took both the stage and the overall win. Basso made it back up to Arroyo and those two finished 25 and 23 seconds behind respectively. Nibali struggled on the final part but held on to 4th while Cardoso and Tiralongo finished 5th and 6th.

Result:

1. Nairo Quintana

2. David Arroyo +0.23

3. Ivan Basso +0.25

4. Vincenzo Nibali +0.48

5. Andre Cardoso +1.08

6. Paolo Tiralongo 

7. Giampaolo Caruso +1.18

8. Mikel Landa +1.24

9. Sergei Chernetskii +1.44

10. Jose Sarmiento

General classification:

1. Nairo Quintana 19.29.22

2. David Arroyo +0.23

3. Vincenzo Nibali +0.55

4. Giampaolo Caruso +1.14

5. Andre Cardoso +1.16

6. Mikel Landa +1.24

7. Sergei Chernetskii +1.29

8. Samuel Sanchez +1.53

9. Jose Sarmiento +2.07

10. Ivan Basso +2.17

Points classification:

1. Anthony Roux 73

2. Simone Ponzi 64

3. Sergei Chernetskii 44

4. Nairo Quintana 33

5. Rinaldo Nocentini 31

Mountains classification:

1. Amets Txurruka 60

2. Nairo Quintana 41

3. David Arroyo 25

4. Robinson Chalapud 25

5. Vincenzo Nibali 24

Sprints classification:

1 Fabricio Ferrari 17

2. Amets Txurruka 10

3. Zak Dempster 9

4. Romain Hardy 7

5. Christian Meier 7

Teams classification:

1. Caja Rural 58.35.39

2. Movistar +1.04

3. Astana +1.11

4. Cannondale +2.59

5. Euskaltel +5.44