Nairo Quintana (Movistar) took it all in the final mountain stage of this year's Tour de France as he soloed across the line to bag both a stage win, the mountains jersey and 2nd place on GC. Chris Froome (Sky) tried to take another stage win with a late attack and while that move was ultimately unsuccessful, his 3rd place was enough to seal his overall win on the eve of the Paris stage.

Nairo Quintana has already done a lot to prove that he is the next big climber in the making but today he underlined that status by taking an excellent stage win in the final mountain stage of the Tour de France to the top of the Annecy-Semnoz climb. He countered a move by race leader Chris Froome with 1km to go and no one was able to respond to the tiny Colombian who soloed across the line to take the stage victory, the mountains jersey and 2nd place on GC.

Froome's move was unsuccessful and the Brit was also overtaken by Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) who finished 2nd on the stage but that result was enough to defend his position atop the leader board. Barring accident in tomorrow's ceremonial stage to Paris, he will take the second consecutive win for Sky in the world's biggest bike race.

Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff) struggled on the final climb and dropped from 2nd to 4th on GC while Rodriguez was justly rewarded for a huge work on the final climb as he moved onto the final overall podium. Contador's teammate Roman Kreuziger did a fabulous work for his team captain and still had enough left in the tank to defend 5th overall.

At the bottom of the final climb, Jens Voigt (Radioshack) was the lone leader, 55 seconds ahead of Pierre Rolland (Europcar), Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) and Alexis Vuillermoz (Sojasun), while the peloton followed 25 seconds further adrift. David Lopez (Sky) put down the hammer on the front and the peloton splintered to pieces as a result.

Moments later, yesterday's winner Rui Costa (Movistar) moved to the front and the Portuguese once again showed the strength that has delivered him two stage wins so far. Only Froome, Richie Porte (Sky), Quintana, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Rodriguez, Contador and Kreuziger were able to match his speed as Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) and Bauke Mollema (Belkin) were some of the riders to drop off. Van Garderen, Rolland and Vuillermoz were absorbed and left behind while Voigt's lead was also melting away.

With 9,1km to go, Valverde moved to the front, said a few words to Costa and then took over the pace-setting, the Portuguese dropping off. He upped the tempo a further notch and that was too much for Kreuziger who fell off the pace.

With 8,6km to go, it was all over for Voigt who had been on the attack all day. Moments later, Froome showed that he still had intentions of the stage win as he asked Porte to up the tempo even further.

That didn't last long as Rodriguez made one of his furious accelerations 100m further up the road and at first, only Quintana was able to respond. Froome spoke into his radio, clearly preferring Porte to take the win, but as he realized that the Australian didn't have it today, he attacked violently and overtook the two climbers ahead.

Gradually Rodriguez clawed his way back to the Brit with Quintana in his wheel and the Katusha rider immediately went to the front as he needed to extend his time gains over Contador. The Saxo-Tinkoff rider was now with Porte and quickly losing time while Valverde was in between those two groups.

Rodriguez wanted his companions to take their share of the work but as they refused, the Spaniard decided to sacrifice the stage win for the podium and he led the front trio for most of the final climb, Froome only moving to the front on one occasion.

Behind, Kreuziger caught Porte and Contador and the Czech did a huge work in an attempt to save the podium spot of his team leader. A little further behind, Mollema, Fuglsang, Christophe Riblon (Ag2r) and Jan Bakelants (Radioshack) were together, the former two being involved in a tight battle for 6th on GC.

Contador constantly lost time and very quickly Rodriguez had taken away his spot on the podium. Instead of gaining ground of the leaders, Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Sharp) caught up from behind while he also kept losing time to Valverde.

Rodriguez led the front trio all the way to the 1,1km to go mark where Froome made an acceleration in an attempt to take the stage win. At first, Quintana didn't respond but a few moments later, he bridged the gap and immediately left the race leader behind.

Froome was now clearly struggling and was also caught by Rodriguez who immediately took over the pace-setting. With 500m to go, he made another of his trademark accelerations and Froome didn't even try to follow him.

However, he was unable to catch Quintana who took a huge solo win while Rodriguez finished 2nd and Froome 3rd. Porte had left behind Contador and Talansky to take 5th while the American finished 6th to move himself into the top 10 on GC.

The win gave Quintana 50 points for the mountains classification and that was enough for him to take over the lead in that competition. He will ride into Paris clad in polka-dots while Talansky will get an opportunity to wear white as second in the youth classification.

Only one largely ceremonial stage into Paris is left but while the GC riders will enjoy the festivities, the sprinters prepare to show off their speed one more time. Starting at 17.45, you can follow the stage on CyclingQuotes.com/live.

Rolland on the hunt for points

As soon as the flag was dropped to signal the start of the short 125km stage, Rolland attacked as his only chance to win the polka-dot jersey was to hold off the peloton on the hilly stage. Voigt bridged the gap and a little later, Juan-Antonio Flecha (Vacansoleil) and Marcus Burghardt (BMC) also got across.

Behind, a small chase group with Riblon, Mikel Astarloza (Euskaltel), Simon Clarke (Orica-GreenEdge), Cyril Gautier (Europcar) and Pavel Brutt (Katusha) had formed while the peloton just rolled along at a leisurely pace. As they started the day's first climb, Igor Anton (Euskaltel) attacked and he quickly managed to bridge to the chase group.

A 10-rider group is formed

There was some discussion in the lead group and that allowed the chasers to close the gap. Rolland took the points at the top while Riblon made a small sprint to take 2nd.

Behind, Movistar showed that they wanted to win the stage and so Jose Joaquin Rojas and Imanol Erviti started to chase when the gap was only 1.40. The pace was fast enough to send the first riders out the back of the peloton.

Battle for points

For a long time, the gap was kept stable at around 1.30 while up ahead Anton beat Rolland on the day's second climb as he wanted to defend the position of his teammate Mikel Nieve in the mountains classification. On the third climb, Rolland took the points ahead of Riblon was Flecha was first across the line in the intermediate sprint.

On the day's fourth climb, Anton and Rolland once again went head-to-head and the Frenchman made a big swerve to the right to deny the Spaniard the opportunity to beat him. For some reason, he wasn't disqualified and so added another 2 points to his tally.

Voigt goes off solo

As they hit the Mont Revard with 61km to go, the gap was under a minute and so Voigt launched an attack. At first Clarke, Brutt and Rolland were able to respond but first Rolland, then Brutt and later also Clarke fell off the pace. Behind the lone German, they joined forces with Gautier, Riblon and Burghardt while Flecha and Astarloza fell back into the peloton. Anton stayed in between the Rolland group and the German ahead.

Movistar still set a hard pace and so many riders now dropped off as most of the big sprinters decided to save their legs for tomorrow. As Rojas finished his work, Katusha decided to add Eduard Vorganov to the team of chasers while Brutt fell back from the breakaway to also make a contribution.

More riders join from behind

Tejay Van Garderen and Philippe Gilbert (BMC) attacked to bridge the gap to the chase group and a little later Vuillermoz followed. The  group joined forces but kept losing time to Voigt who was 2 minutes ahead at the top while the peloton were another 1.15 behind. Anton had made it to within 15 seconds before he exploded and when he kept losing time on the descent, he decided to wait for the chase group.

Movistar and Katusha now really put down the hammer as Jonathan Castroviejo and Andrey Amador joined Brutt, Vorganov and Erviti on the front. Despite Voigt's best efforts, he started to lose time to the main group but impressively managed to keep the chasers at bay despite the huge work made by Gilbert, Burghardt and Gautier.

Burghardt finishes his work

With 18km to go, Burghardt fell back into the peloton while decided that it was time to up the pace. Ian Stannard and later Kanstantsin Siutsou set a furious tempo that saw the main group splinter to pieces and suddenly only around 20 riders were left.

With 12km to go, Van Garderen attacked and only Rolland and Vuillermoz could join him. He made another acceleration a little later but his companions gradually drew it back together.

That was when Lopez hit the front in the peloton and moments later, they started the final climb. From then on, the race exploded in what was a very exciting conclusion to the GC battle of this year's Tour.

Result:

1. Nairo Quintana 3.39.04

2. Joaquin Rodriguez +0.18

3. Chris Froome +0.29

4. Alejandro Valverde +1.42

5. Richie Porte +2.17

6. Andrew Talansky +2.27

7. Alberto Contador +2.28

8. John Gadret +2.48

9. Jesus Hernandez +2.55

10. Roman Kreuziger +2.55

General classification:

1. Chris Froome 80.49.33

2. Nairo Quintana +5.03

3. Joaquin Rodriguez +5.47

4. Alberto Contador +7.10

5. Roman Kreuziger +8.10

6. Bauke Mollema +12.25

7. Jakob Fuglsang +13.00

8. Alejandro Valverde +16.09

9. Daniel Navarro +16.35

10. Andrew Talansky +18.22

Points classification:

1. Peter Sagan 383

2. Mark Cavendish 282

3. Andre Greipel 232

4. Marcel Kittel 177

5. Alexander Kristoff 157

Mountains classification:

1. Nairo Quintana 147

2. Chris Froome 136

3. Pierre Rolland 119

4. Joaquin Rodriguez 99

5. Christophe Riblon 98

Youth classification:

1. Nairo Quintana 80.54.36

2. Andrew Talansky +13.19

3. Michal Kwiatkowski +14.39

4. Romain Bardet +22.2

5. Tom Dumoulin +1.30.10

Teams classification:

1. Team Saxo-Tinkoff  241.52.05

2. Ag2r +8.30

3. Radioshack +8.52

4. Movistar +22.45

5. Belkin +38.26