Stage 10

The road

At the start

Forty-seven kilometres in Salamanca

Bauke Mollema is in red by a single second from Rodriguez, with Nibali third at nine and the whole top eight inside 42 seconds. Today is long enough to undo every bit of that: 47 kilometres out of Salamanca, up towards Morille and back down, with a westerly wind and a rise into the Plaza Mayor. Bradley Wiggins has been chasing since he lost 42 seconds on the opening day.

How it was won

1. 135 km to go

   Wiggins fastest at thirteen

   Bradley Wiggins goes out of Salamanca like a bullet and sets the quickest time at the first check. Chris Froome, on the same team, starts far more carefully than anybody watching thinks is wise.

2. 218 km to go

   Tony Martin takes over

   By the second check Wiggins has lost twenty seconds and the stage lead to Tony Martin, who is dismantling Fabian Cancellara in the Spanish heat three weeks before the Worlds. Froome is only now beginning to show what he has.

3. 31 km to go

   The one-kilometre board

   It takes until the red kite for anybody to say it out loud: Froome is going to beat Cancellara's time, and he is going to take the red jersey. Wiggins, meanwhile, is losing his rhythm on the closing rise.

4. 4At the line

   Salamanca

   Tony Martin wins the stage; Froome is second and moves twelve seconds clear of Fuglsang at the top of the Vuelta; Wiggins is third and 29 seconds behind his own domestique. Nobody at Team Sky says anything about leadership, and everybody has noticed.

The result