Stage 8

The road

How it was won

1. 150 km to go

   Ten minutes across the Duero

   In another scorching day the eleven-man break has almost ten minutes with 50km left, and with Domont — the best placed of them at nearly 24 minutes — no threat at all, Atapuma's BMC are happy to let it be a race for the stage.

2. 28 km to go

   Cooperation breaks at the foot

   Zico Waeytens is first to break the truce, attacking as the road turns up with eight kilometres left; Smukulis chases with Restrepo on his wheel, and Restrepo powers on to lead by twenty seconds.

3. 34 km to go

   Quintana's dig on the Camperona

   On the brutal pitches near the top of the eight-kilometre wall, Nairo Quintana lights the first real GC move of the Vuelta and distances his rivals. A battered Alberto Contador finds daylight over Froome and Valverde and wins back some of the week he had lost.

4. 42 km to go

   Restrepo caught at 1600 metres

   Domont, Serry and Lagutin haul themselves back up the steepest two kilometres and reel Restrepo in for good, Quéméneur clawing his way up in the final kilometre.

5. 5At the line

   Lagutin, incredulous at 35

   It is less a sprint than a grind. Sergey Lagutin goes first, Domont cannot come round and loses ten seconds in a hundred metres, and a 35-year-old finally has a Grand Tour stage win.

The result