Stage 19

The road

At the start

The last chance for a breakaway

Bennati won the sprint in Valladolid and nothing changed: Contador in red, Valverde at 1:52, Rodríguez at 2:28. With the Bola del Mundo tomorrow and Madrid the day after, today is the final realistic opportunity for anybody whose Vuelta depends on getting into the right move — a hundred and sixty-nine lumpy kilometres through Segovia, finishing up a long drag at La Lastrilla.

How it was won

1. 128 km to go

   Ten minutes, then nothing

   Galdos and Toribio went in the opening moments and were allowed more than ten minutes before anybody reacted. They are caught with twenty-eight kilometres left, and it looks like a bunch sprint.

2. 213 km to go

   Segovia breaks the peloton

   The roads around the city are lumpy enough to make control impossible and the bunch splits. All the contenders are in the front forty, driven by Movistar, who set Valverde up to take the second intermediate sprint ahead of Rodríguez — six seconds that will matter.

3. 31 km to go

   Roche attacks at the kilometre

   Roche, Breschel, Flecha and Degenkolb sweep past the last escapee with 1500 metres left, and the Irishman attacks immediately rather than sprint against a German who has already won four stages. For two hundred metres it looks like his first Grand Tour win.

4. 4At the line

   Gilbert, up the long drag

   Degenkolb claws back to Roche's wheel with five hundred metres left and is about to open up when Philippe Gilbert sweeps past on his left and simply rides away up the rise to La Lastrilla. Valverde comes through for second and takes seventeen seconds out of Contador on the day.

The result