Stage 10

The road

At the start

Hazallanas, and the first real mountain

Daniel Moreno won the wall and leads by a single second from Roche, twenty from Nibali and twenty-eight from Horner: nine days of nip and tuck with nobody more than half a minute apart. That ends today. The Alto de Monachil, then the Alto de Hazallanas, in searing heat, at the end of a hundred and eighty-seven kilometres.

How it was won

1. 145 km to go

   Ten survivors and five minutes

   Twenty-one riders went early and a rolling afternoon in Andalusian heat has reduced them to ten. They reach the last forty-five kilometres, and the foot of the Alto de Monachil, with five minutes.

2. 228 km to go

   Cancellara guts the peloton

   Marczyński and Ulissi inch clear of the break on the Monachil. Behind them, a rider who will contest the world time trial title in three weeks puts in a ferocious turn on the front and whittles the bunch down to the men who can climb.

3. 39 km to go

   Nibali sets harsh terms

   Antón is reeled in, and then Nibali and Fuglsang ride two kilometres hard enough to drop the race leader Daniel Moreno, kill the last of the break and leave a handful of riders at the front of the Vuelta. It looks exactly like a Sicilian taking control of a Grand Tour.

4. 45 km to go

   And then Horner goes

   Four and a half kilometres from the summit, in searing heat, the oldest man in the front group attacks — and stays out of the saddle for practically the whole of the rest of the climb. Nibali, Basso and Pinot take turns at chasing and each attempt dies, nobody willing to give Rodríguez a free ride to the final ramps.

5. 53 km to go

   Fifty seconds, and Nibali finally moves

   Twenty-eight seconds with four kilometres left, forty-one a kilometre later, fifty with 2.5 to go — and only now does Nibali rip clear of the chase group on his own. He pedals twice as fast as the man ahead of him and takes back almost nothing.

6. 6At the line

   Alto de Hazallanas

   Horner defends himself well where the road levels and crosses forty-eight seconds up on Nibali and 1:02 on Valverde. He has the red jersey back. Daniel Moreno, who wore it this morning, loses over two minutes.

The result