Stage 7

The road

At the start

Out of Galicia, on a saw-tooth road

Darwin Atapuma has held red for three days and still leads Valverde by twenty-eight seconds and Froome by thirty-two, with Quintana and Chaves at thirty-eight. Today takes the race out of Galicia and into Zamora over three categorised climbs and a great many uncategorised ones, the last summit eighteen kilometres out with a flat run-in beyond it. Miguel Ángel López has gone home.

How it was won

1. 118 km to go

   Astana show their hand

   The break has just been caught when Dario Cataldo surges away alone on the barren climb. Sánchez, Brambilla, Clarke and Maté join him and the move opens thirty seconds — Brambilla, 1:22 down overall, a genuine threat to Atapuma's red.

2. 210 km to go

   Clarke and Sánchez try their hand

   The peloton is content to have reeled Brambilla back in and lets the pair take fifteen seconds down the fast valley road with ten kilometres to run.

3. 32 km to go

   Contador down again

   In the heat of the chase, with the gap at ten seconds and 1.5km left, Alberto Contador hits the deck and is left furious at the roadside.

4. 4At the line

   Caught with a hundred metres left

   The 500-metre uphill drag to the line proves fatal for the two leaders. The peloton swallows them in sight of the banner and Jonas Van Genechten does not hesitate, taking the sprint from Bennati and Valverde.

The result