Stage 8

The road

At the start

Molard still in red, a drag to Almadén

Rudy Molard came out of Pozo Alcón with red intact, 47 seconds up on Alejandro Valverde and 51 on Simon Yates. Today crosses the empty middle of Spain — 195 kilometres from Linares to Almadén — and the only difficulty is the finish itself: a four-per-cent drag into town, too shallow for the climbers and too long for the pure sprinters.

How it was won

1. 16 km to go

   The last man caught

   The break's final survivor Machado is swallowed with under 6km to go, and the sprint teams jostle for the uphill drag to Almadén.

2. 2At the line

   Valverde strikes again

   Starting his effort four wheels back, Valverde comes past Sagan at the last on the four-per-cent finale for his second win of the race.

The result