Stage 14

The road

At the start

The first of the three that decide it

Steve Cummings won alone in Ferrol and nothing moved: Rodríguez by thirteen seconds from Contador, Froome at fifty-one, Valverde at 1:20. Nacer Bouhanni has gone home with a knee injury. Today the Vuelta changes character — a hundred and fifty kilometres, five categorised climbs, and the Puerto de Ancares, used as a summit finish for the first time.

How it was won

1. 1131 km to go

   Sixteen go, and two of them matter

   David Moncoutié, Simon Clarke and fourteen others get clear after nineteen kilometres. Crucially, Katusha have Alberto Losada in there and Movistar have Javi Moreno: the two men in red and second place both have a helper waiting up the road.

2. 224 km to go

   Contador punctures, and the race waits

   Bruno Pires strings the peloton out over the first-category Folgueiras de Aigas and the break starts fracturing ahead of it. Then Contador punctures near the summit and stops for Jesús Hernández's front wheel — the whole thing regroups behind him, and the escapees get their cushion back.

3. 310 km to go

   Losada, two minutes clear at the foot

   Off the descent Alberto Losada eases away from what is left of the break and starts the Ancares with almost two minutes. Behind him Majka, Paulinho and Navarro wind Saxo Bank's tempo up until a group of forty is a group of ten.

4. 45 km to go

   Majka launches Contador

   The last and best of Rafal Majka's efforts puts his leader off the front with a real gap. Valverde closes it down, Rodríguez and Dani Moreno arrive, and the four of them ride straight past a fading Losada.

5. 52 km to go

   Contador goes, Froome answers

   Two kilometres out Contador attacks and it looks decisive. Then Chris Froome, who has been struggling to hold the wheels all climb, accelerates up to and past Rodríguez and Valverde — and empties himself doing it.

6. 6At the line

   Rodríguez, on a thirteen per cent ramp

   Rodríguez counters Froome, goes after Contador, and catches him with five hundred metres left. Contador jumps past him again; Rodríguez gets back on the wheel and then produces a surge on a thirteen per cent gradient that settles the argument. The stage, twelve seconds of bonus, and the red jersey held on a mountain that was supposed to be too long for him.

The result