Stage 20

The road

At the start

The Bola del Mundo, and one more chance

Gilbert's second stage win cost Contador seventeen seconds to Valverde and seven to Rodríguez; the lead is 1:35 and 2:21, which is not a great deal with a mountain like this one left. Today ends on the Bola del Mundo — the Navacerrada, and then a concrete service road at eighteen per cent to the antennas at 2,252 metres. Simon Clarke still needs points to keep the mountains jersey.

How it was won

1. 1149 km to go

   Twenty go on the first climb

   Simon Clarke needs points to keep the mountains jersey and gets himself into a twenty-man break inside the first twenty kilometres. Menchov, Porte, Kessiakoff, De Weert and Cobo are in there too — and so, therefore, is the stage win.

2. 280 km to go

   Clarke wraps up the mountains

   Maximum points on the first three climbs and the polka-dot jersey is settled. Euskaltel, of all teams, drive the chase behind, with a rider of their own up the road and no obvious reason to be there.

3. 343 km to go

   5:43, and the real teams arrive

   Over the Navacerrada the break is still nearly six minutes clear and largely intact. Movistar and Saxo Bank finally come to the front of the peloton, and Rabobank, with two men in the top ten, go with them.

4. 49 km to go

   Porte shatters the break

   Nine kilometres from the top of the Bola del Mundo, Richie Porte lifts the pace on the concrete and the front group falls apart behind him. Kessiakoff goes, Bouet goes, Capecchi goes. Only Denis Menchov can hold the wheel.

5. 54 km to go

   Rodríguez attacks the eighteen per cent

   Four kilometres left and the road tilts into the wall of spectators at eighteen per cent, and the man who lost the Vuelta three days ago rediscovers everything he had for the first fortnight. He drops Contador and Valverde and rides away up a mountain that is barely a road.

6. 6At the line

   Menchov, and a Vuelta held

   Menchov beats Porte at the summit. Nineteen seconds behind Rodríguez, Alberto Contador slumps across the line having lost time and kept everything that matters: 1:16 over Valverde, 1:37 over Rodríguez, and one processional day to Madrid.

The result