Stage 21

The road

At the start

Madrid, and one jersey still live

Denis Menchov won the Bola del Mundo; Joaquim Rodríguez took nineteen seconds back on the wall and Alberto Contador kept the red jersey by 1:16 from Valverde and 1:37 from Rodríguez. Tony Martin abandoned. Today runs downhill out of the mountains and then ten laps of a five-point-seven-kilometre circuit in Madrid — where the green jersey on Rodríguez's shoulders is still, just, in reach of Valverde.

How it was won

1. 113 km to go

   Six try, and get twenty seconds

   Lagutin, Seeldraeyers, Carrasco, Chacón, Astarloza and Aramendia attack on the Madrid circuit, but with the points jersey still live and Saxo Bank shepherding, they are never allowed more than twenty seconds.

2. 2At the line

   Degenkolb's fifth, Contador's third

   Argos-Shimano deliver their sprinter one more time and Degenkolb beats Viviani and Bennati for a fifth stage of this Vuelta. Sixth on the day is Alejandro Valverde, which is enough to take the points jersey off Joaquim Rodríguez on the last afternoon. And in the middle of the bunch, less than two months after a doping suspension ended, Alberto Contador rides in to win the race.

The result