Stage 15

The road

At the start

Nibali in red, the Lagos ahead

Igor Antón's Vuelta ended on the tarmac six and a half kilometres from the summit of Peña Cabarga, and his jersey has passed to Vincenzo Nibali — four seconds up on Joaquim Rodríguez, fifty on Ezequiel Mosquera. Óscar Freire has gone home as well. Today finishes at the Lagos de Covadonga: a thousand metres of climbing in fourteen, with the fifteen-per-cent kilometre they call the boneyard in the middle.

How it was won

1. 1120 km to go

   Six clear after half an hour at fifty-three

   Liquigas refuse everything for the first hour and the opening half-hour is ridden at 53km/h. It costs Intxausti, Vichot and Arrieta their Vueltas. Finally Velits, Van Avermaet, Barredo, Cazaux, Sijmens and Kaisen get away, and take 9:30 in driving rain.

2. 212 km to go

   Barredo answers on the lower slopes

   Seven minutes at the foot of the Lagos de Covadonga is enough for the break to decide the stage between them. Martin Velits attacks first; Carlos Barredo answers with change and rides away from him, leaving the rest strewn across the mountainside.

3. 310 km to go

   Thirty seconds in a kilometre

   Kreuziger comes to the front for Nibali early on the climb and the leader loses half a minute in a single kilometre. Barredo does not panic and does not chase the pace; he simply keeps tapping out the same rhythm.

4. 46 km to go

   Mosquera disappears into the cloud

   Six kilometres from the summit Sastre digs, Mosquera counters him, and the red jersey vanishes into low cloud behind the Spaniard. Fifteen seconds, then he kicks again, and for a few minutes on a mountain nobody can see, Vincenzo Nibali is on the ropes.

5. 53 km to go

   Nibali takes the risks

   There is a short downhill stretch inside the final kilometres and Nibali throws himself at it, nearly putting himself into a wall to claw back what he can. It is the ride of a man who knows exactly how thin fifty seconds is.

6. 6At the line

   Out of the mist, eleven seconds

   Carlos Barredo emerges at the summit for his first Grand Tour stage win — a result later annulled, leaving Nico Sijmens the winner of record. Behind, Mosquera looks back and finds Nibali only eleven seconds down, with Rodríguez on his wheel. The red jersey has survived.

The result