Stage 20

The road

How it was won

1. 1145 km to go

   Frantic from the gun

   Four first-category climbs on the last real day of the race, and the fight to be in the break is desperate. Over the Navacerrada the ten leaders have 1:06 on a huge chase group and 6:32 on the field.

2. 2108 km to go

   Plaza goes, with 112 kilometres left

   On the second climb Rubén Plaza simply rides away from everybody and starts a solo effort that will last one hundred and twelve kilometres. Behind him the break and its chasers merge into a mini-peloton of thirty-eight that never once organises itself.

3. 353 km to go

   Astana spring the trap

   Four kilometres from the top of the Morcuera for the second time, Mikel Landa attacks. Aru, Quintana and Majka go with him. Dumoulin is distanced, claws his way back, and Valverde — who tried to come with him — cannot.

4. 449 km to go

   The Vuelta changes hands near the summit

   Two riders in the morning break dropping back to help, a stronger climbing team, and one attack too many: near the top Aru, Quintana and Majka go again and this time Dumoulin cannot come back. He and Nieve watch them ride into the distance, and a Dutchman watches a Grand Tour victory disappear over a Spanish mountain pass.

5. 518 km to go

   Cotos, and Majka's birthday

   Landa drives the Aru group all the way up the last climb until Quintana jumps near the summit, sensing places on general classification. Rafał Majka, twenty-six today, goes with him to defend his own.

6. 6At the line

   Plaza alone, Aru in red

   Entirely unaware of the drama behind him, Rubén Plaza holds 1:40 to the line. Fabio Aru finishes the day in the red jersey he will carry to Madrid; Tom Dumoulin slides to sixth.

The result