Stage 14

The road

At the start

La Camperona, twenty-four per cent

The first of three summit finishes, on a climb the Vuelta has never used: ten kilometres up to La Camperona whose final three average fourteen per cent and touch twenty-four. Before it come the Collada de la Hoz, where Contador ambushed Rodríguez to win this race in 2012, and the long San Glorio. Contador leads Valverde by twenty seconds, Urán by 1:08 and Froome by 1:20.

How it was won

1. 1123 km to go

   Twenty-three men, seven and a half minutes

   It takes an age for the move to form, and when it does it is enormous and star-studded — Boonen, Hesjedal, Erviti, Hansen, Zaugg among them. Luis León Sánchez takes the first points on the Collada de la Hoz with the mountains jersey in mind.

2. 269 km to go

   Sánchez pays himself back

   He and Arroyo jump away on twenty-one kilometres of steady climbing, take on far too much and are caught a kilometre from the top — and still Sánchez finds the legs to jump again and claim the ten points at the summit.

3. 326 km to go

   The peloton gives up on the stage

   Omega Pharma's chase runs out of steam along the ridge and the gap goes back out. Nobody up front is a threat overall, so Contador sends his men to the front and the favourites start thinking only about each other.

4. 42 km to go

   Fifteen per cent, and Hesjedal goes

   La Camperona is new to the Vuelta and its last kilometres average 15 per cent, touching 24. Nobody dares move until Hesjedal does, two kilometres out — and Zaugg answers him, comes past him and rides away.

5. 51 km to go

   Froome from nowhere

   Valverde attacks the red jersey group and Contador, Moreno and Rodríguez close him down. Then Froome, invisible all day, appears at the back and simply keeps moving up, attacking exactly where the gradient eases.

6. 6At the line

   Hesjedal reels Zaugg in

   The Canadian never panics, keeps his own rhythm on the wall and passes an emptied Zaugg inside 200 metres — with time to zip up his jersey and glance back, then nearly topple over as he lifts his arms on a 20 per cent gradient. Behind, Rodríguez follows Froome home a second down, Contador seven, Valverde thirty, and Urán falls off the podium.

The result