Joaquim Rodriguez got safely through a tricky stage of the Vuelta a Espana and is still fourth overall. The Spaniard is now ready for his final big test in the mountains.

It looked to be a last day for a group sprint, but a late attack gave rider Adam Hansen a solo victory and his second career grand tour stage win. For Team Katusha it was all about conserving energy for Saturday’s mountain stage and preserving the teams classification overall. Katusha leads by more than 26-minutes to Movistar.

"The team of Giant-Shimano controlled from the beginning and then Orica helped too. The last climb was not so easy especially with the action in the front. We had most of our team there.  We wanted to keep ‘Purito’ in the front and out of danger. Tomorrow is an important day and it will be a super hard one. They needed to save energy for tomorrow. Plus there is a long transfer today, which is becoming normal for the grand tours, usually an hour or more in the bus either after the stage or in the morning. But the race organization has to go to the cities that support cycling and want to host the stages so we have to accept this as part of cycling," said team director José Azevedo.

The late attack from Hansen gave him the victory five seconds in front of John Degenkolb (Giant-Shimano) and Filippo Pozzato of Lampre-Merida.

No changes came to the general classification with Alberto Contador still in the race lead by 1.19 after 76-hours of racing and ten days in the red jersey. Second place is currently held by Christopher Froome (Sky). Third is Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) at 1.32 with Katusha’s Joaquim Rodriguez in fourth at 2.29. Daniel Moreno is 11th, Giampaolo Caruso is 15th.

Saturday’s stage 20 is the final day of climbing in the final grand tour of the season and it is sure be a hard one. It’s a final chance for the GC men to make any changes on the road at the top of the classification. There are four climbs in the last part of the stage with the two biggest coming near the end, including the HC summit finish of the Puerto de Ancares with 18% maximum grade and 12,7 km in length. The stage begins in Santa Estevo de Ribas de Sil and is 186 km.