Stage 17

The road

At the start

A day everybody expects to be quiet

Rodríguez held Contador off through a dozen attacks on the Cuitu Negru and even took two seconds back at the line; he comes out of the second rest day twenty-eight seconds up, with Valverde at 2:04 and Froome at 4:52. Today is the fourth summit finish in succession and by some way the gentlest — a long, lumpy hundred and seventy-seven kilometres and then a steady climb to Fuente Dé.

How it was won

1. 150 km to go

   Saxo Bank light it fifty kilometres out

   Nobody expects a Vuelta to be decided here, on the road to Potes, with the real climb still to come. Saxo Bank set a pace that pulls a group clear, and in it are Contador and Valverde. In red, behind, is Joaquim Rodríguez.

2. 226 km to go

   A minute and a half, and rising

   Sergio Paulinho drives the front group and the gap to the red jersey grows every kilometre. Rodríguez has lost his last team-mate; Valverde has been on his own for a while. Nobody in the group behind will ride.

3. 323 km to go

   Contador and Tiralongo go

   Just before the last intermediate sprint Contador attacks with Paolo Tiralongo — his friend and old Astana team-mate — and the two of them start the seventeen-kilometre climb to Fuente Dé with twenty-four seconds on the chase, two minutes on Rodríguez and Valverde, and over three on the peloton.

4. 413 km to go

   Alone, thirteen and a half out

   Told that the leader has been dropped, Contador attacks again and leaves Tiralongo standing. From there he rides the mountain as if he were on a training ride, looking almost comfortable, and the gap keeps growing.

5. 510 km to go

   Nobody chases

   Ten kilometres to go and Contador has 1:40 on Valverde and more than two minutes on the red jersey. Valverde has Intxausti to help him. Rodríguez has Saxo Bank's Jesús Hernández sitting on his wheel and nothing else, and the gap only grows.

6. 6At the line

   The Vuelta changes hands at Fuente Dé

   Valverde comes back to within thirteen seconds by the flamme rouge and Contador starts looking under his arm; at three hundred metres he knows, and his arms go up. Six seconds on Valverde on the day. And 2:38 behind him comes Joaquim Rodríguez, tenth, the red jersey he has worn for thirteen days gone in a single afternoon on a road nobody thought was dangerous.

The result