Stage 19

The road

At the start

The Basque Country, after 33 years

Thirteen seconds separate Cobo and Froome with three days left. Today the Vuelta returns to the Basque Country for the first time since 1978 and finishes on a 32-kilometre circuit around Bilbao that climbs the short, savage Alto El Vivero twice. Sky have two riders in the top three and no more mountains after tomorrow, so they will go looking for those thirteen seconds here.

How it was won

1. 1130 km to go

   Anton goes hunting

   Sky let four riders go at twenty-nine kilometres and one of them is Igor Anton, on the day the Vuelta returns to the Basque Country for the first time in 33 years. His teammate Verdugo goes with him, and Bruseghin and Dyachenko complete it.

2. 246 km to go

   Löfkvist shreds the bunch

   The finishing circuit climbs El Vivero twice. The first time up, Sky put Thomas Löfkvist on the front with Wiggins and Froome behind him and Cobo behind them, and by the summit there are fewer than thirty riders left in the peloton.

3. 316 km to go

   Anton kicks at eleven percent

   Second time up, with a shade under two kilometres to the top, the local rider goes on the steepest ramp. The crowd is standing in the road and parts in front of him at the last possible moment, and Bruseghin cannot come with him.

4. 415 km to go

   Two accelerations, one answer

   Wiggins lifts the tempo to set it up and Froome attacks with a kilometre of climbing left. Cobo is on him instantly, and the pair drop everyone else. Froome goes again where the road pitches up for the last time, and the Spaniard is still there.

5. 514 km to go

   Over the top together

   They crest just ahead of Nieve, sit up, and are swallowed by the group on the descent. There are eight bonus seconds for third place in Bilbao, so Cobo sticks to Froome's wheel like a limpet all the way down.

6. 6At the line

   Bilbao

   Anton wins on home roads to a noise the Vuelta has not heard in three decades, Bruseghin second. Cobo keeps his thirteen seconds, and the tightest Vuelta in years goes into its last weekend unresolved.

The result