Stage 13

The road

At the start

The last easy day of the Vuelta

The Ézaro gave Rodríguez his second stage and pushed his lead over Contador out to thirteen seconds. Xabier Zandio abandoned after a crash. Today runs the pilgrims' Camino Inglés backwards, from Santiago de Compostela down to Ferrol — and with three summit finishes waiting behind it, every contender in this race wants the day given away.

How it was won

1. 1133 km to go

   Seven pilgrims

   It takes an hour of racing before Cummings, Meyer, Flecha, Viviani, Clarke, De Gendt and Gerdemann are given a day pass on the reverse of the Camino Inglés. Argos-Shimano never let them have more than four minutes.

2. 27 km to go

   Flecha breaks the truce

   Seven kilometres out the alliance of convenience ends and Juan Antonio Flecha jumps. Cameron Meyer, a track pursuiter of the highest order, drags De Gendt, Gerdemann and Cummings back up to him two kilometres later.

3. 34 km to go

   Cummings goes down the right

   The moment the group comes together Steve Cummings attacks ferociously down the right-hand side of the road. He knows exactly what he is doing and exactly what happens to him if he hesitates: four thousand metres, alone, on exposed roads, against a man who won the same Olympic medal he did.

4. 4At the line

   Four seconds, and Meyer's fingertips

   Under the red kite Meyer is close enough to reach for his wheel. Cummings finds one more acceleration, and holds four seconds to the line in Ferrol while the peloton, which had spent all afternoon setting up a sprint for Degenkolb, arrives forty seconds later.

The result