Stage 13

The road

At the start

The Ancares, for the first time

Nothing moved in Pontevedra: Wiggins by seven seconds over Froome, Kessiakoff at nine, Nibali at ten. Today the Vuelta climbs the Puerto de Ancares for the first time in its history, 11.8 kilometres at 7.7 percent, on a stage carrying five ranked ascents and a descent people have been talking about for weeks — with twenty-seven kilometres left after it to make something of the damage.

How it was won

1. 1114 km to go

   Le Lay lights it, twenty-six follow

   David Le Lay jumps on a fifteen-kilometre descent and a huge group piles across to him — Sastre, Anton, Nieve, Moncoutié, Moreno, Roche, Capecchi, Albasini and more. Wiggins and Nibali have both been up the road already this morning collecting sprint bonuses.

2. 262 km to go

   The Ancares, at last

   Eleven point eight kilometres at 7.7 percent, making its long-awaited Vuelta debut in thick crowd and thicker cloud. It shreds the break — Anton is the first to lose contact — and Moreno takes the points at the top with Moncoutié second again.

3. 351 km to go

   The descent that decided nothing

   Nibali, Kessiakoff and Mollema try to turn the feared drop off the Ancares into a general classification move and are roped back in. The hardest climb of the Vuelta so far changes the standings not at all.

4. 4At the line

   Ponferrada

   Albasini and Madrazo go with three kilometres left, the group comes back together under the red kite, and then Albasini opens the sprint and rides away from all of them. Capecchi is second, Moreno third, and the field arrives 1:32 later.

The result