Stage 9

The road

How it was won

1. 1139 km to go

   Valverde in an early pile-up

   A mass crash early on the road up the Costa Blanca catches Alejandro Valverde. He rejoins, but the power he needs tonight will not be there.

2. 28 km to go

   The fourteen are caught

   The break has led for most of the day and is swept up just as the finishing loop begins. Everyone has now seen the ramp that is about to decide the stage.

3. 34 km to go

   The Movistar double-header

   Valverde attacks first at the foot of the climb and is caught; Quintana counters immediately, living up to his team's promise to race. Both of them will pay for it within two kilometres.

4. 42 km to go

   Dumoulin goes early

   As the gradient hits double figures a time triallist does the only thing a time triallist can do against pure climbers: he goes early, on raw power, hoping to be gone before they can jump. It works — Dumoulin is first under the red kite with half the general classification in pieces behind him.

5. 5At the line

   Caught, and then not

   Froome closes him down inside the last kilometre with Rodríguez on his wheel and goes past. Dumoulin, out of the saddle, finds one more effort, takes it back and crosses first — and the red jersey with it.

The result