Stage 13

The road

At the start

North to Cabárceno, before the storm

The Vuelta heads north towards Santander with three summit finishes waiting behind it, so the favourites want today to pass off quietly: three climbs in the second half, a long descent, then a short uncategorised rise into the nature park at Cabárceno. Alberto Contador holds red by twenty seconds from Alejandro Valverde, Urán at 1:08, Froome at 1:20, Rodríguez at 1:35. It may be their last easy afternoon.

How it was won

1. 179 km to go

   Sagan goes climbing

   Eleven riders have been clear since the fifteenth kilometre and the green-jersey-hunting Peter Sagan is among them over the Estacas de Trueba, the hardest climb of the day.

2. 238 km to go

   The last climb before the sting

   Over the Alto del Caracol the escape's advantage is dwindling fast, and everyone in it knows the stage will be decided on an uncategorised wall in a nature park.

3. 314 km to go

   Forty seconds left

   The break is down to 40 seconds with 14km to go and starts racing itself. Lutsenko goes clear, but before he can find a rhythm the peloton has him in its sights.

4. 45 km to go

   Navarro times it perfectly

   Brambilla goes first on the uncategorised climb to Cabárceno. Le Mével does the work, and then Daniel Navarro attacks bullishly, bridges to the Italian and immediately attacks again — a rider whose name the announcers had already got wrong once today.

5. 5At the line

   The favourites watch each other

   Dan Martin tries twice, Froome flickers into life with a dig of his own, but Contador, Valverde and Rodríguez are all more interested in one another than in the road ahead. Navarro holds a handful of seconds to the line from Daniel Moreno and Kelderman.

The result