Stage 20

The road

At the start

Ten small climbs, and one day left

One day of racing remains, and Sepp Kuss still leads Jonas Vingegaard by 17 seconds and Primož Roglič by 1:08. Today is the longest stage of the Vuelta and nothing on it is harder than category three — but there are ten of those climbs in 208 kilometres through the sierras west of Madrid, one after another with no rest in between. A team defending a lead has nowhere to hide.

How it was won

1. 1178 km to go

   Attacks from the gun

   The uphill start sparks a fierce fight for the break; with no GC threat aboard, Kuss and Jumbo let a large group go up the road.

2. 211 km to go

   San Lorenzo de El Escorial

   On the cobbled final climb it is Wout Poels, not Evenepoel, who explodes clear of the break first.

3. 311 km to go

   Evenepoel chases

   Evenepoel throws everything into the chase, gaining through every corner of the descent, but can't quite bridge alone to the flying Dutchman.

4. 4At the line

   Guadarrama

   Poels jumps first in the reduced sprint and a perfectly-timed bike throw denies Evenepoel's huge late surge on the line.

The result