Stage 6

The road

At the start

A sting in the tail at Jaca

Degenkolb's second stage of the race did nothing at all to the standings: Rodríguez by a second from Froome, five from Contador. Today is simple until it is not — a hundred and seventy-five kilometres out of the Rioja into Aragón, and then two category-three climbs inside the last twenty, the second of them rising into the winter resort of Jaca.

How it was won

1. 122 km to go

   Thirty-seven degrees, and De Gendt alone

   The Oroel is only a category three but the heat is doing what the gradient cannot, and riders come off the back all the way up it. Thomas De Gendt drops what is left of his breakaway and goes on alone with forty-eight seconds.

2. 214 km to go

   Over the top, and Saxo behind

   De Gendt takes the mountain points and throws himself down the far side as fast as he can, but Saxo Bank are relentless: at the bottom, with ten kilometres left, he has thirty-two seconds and the race cars are already going past him.

3. 33 km to go

   Caught at the foot of the last climb

   Three kilometres out he has a handful of seconds and the favourites are lining up behind him. He is swept up exactly where the road starts to rise into Jaca.

4. 4At the line

   Rodríguez, uphill, again

   Froome opens the sprint on the closing ramp and Joaquim Rodríguez goes past him as though the Briton were freewheeling. Five seconds on the road plus the winner's bonus, Valverde third at ten, Contador only fourth at eighteen — and the red jersey looks a lot more comfortable than it did this morning.

The result