Stage 14

The road

At the start

La Pandera, and Gall a man short

Van Aert has his stage at last and the classification is untouched: Mas by 1:45 from Roglič, 2:06 from Gall. But Gregor Mühlberger crashed out yesterday, and Decathlon have lost the rider who set the pace on every mountain of this race. Thirty are home. Today is short and vicious — 152 kilometres out of Jaén, four thousand metres of climbing, and 11.8 kilometres of the Sierra de la Pandera to finish.

How it was won

1. 159 km to go

   Forty-five clear in the heat

   Attacks from the flag on a road that goes uphill immediately, and after thirty frantic kilometres a breakaway of forty-five riders finally settles with more than three minutes. By the Puerto de los Villares that has stretched past five and Movistar begin to pull it back — but only halfway, and only far enough to be sure the stage will not threaten the red jersey. Over the top the peloton is four minutes down and content.

2. 218 km to go

   Vermaerke alone, eight minutes clear

   Kevin Vermaerke went on the descent of the Villares and has been on his own ever since, a minute forty-four ahead of what is left of the break and eight minutes ten ahead of the bunch as the Puerto de Locubín begins. It is the last climb before the mountain, and it is where the American's grip loosens: his lead is smaller at the summit than it was at the foot.

3. 312 km to go

   The Muro, then eleven point eight kilometres

   Vermaerke is caught on the Muro de Valdepeñas de Jaén, the short savage dig through the town that has finished Vuelta stages of its own, and Georg Steinhauser goes past him alone onto the Sierra de la Pandera. Eleven point eight kilometres at seven and a half per cent, in Andalusian heat, with the peloton six and a half minutes back and no longer part of the story. Guillaume Martin rides up to Steinhauser with just over nine to go and the two lead a large chase by fifty seconds.

4. 44 km to go

   Four out of the flux

   The front of the race becomes unreadable — Martin and Steinhauser swallowed, Mario Aparicio away with thirty-five seconds into the final four kilometres, and then Buitrago and Marco Brenner coming past him as though he were stationary. Buitrago tries to go alone, is brought back, and a group of four forms with Cristián Rodríguez and Iván Sosa. The stage is between them now.

5. 53 km to go

   Carapaz goes where he won before

   EF have been on the front since the foot of the climb and everyone knows what for: Carapaz won on this summit the last time the Vuelta came here. With four kilometres left he follows a dig from Mas and rides straight through it, alone. It lasts a few hundred metres. Mas, Gall and Roglič close it down together, and the top four in the race are looking at each other again.

6. 6At the line

   Brenner wins it; Roglič loses second

   Inside the last kilometre Buitrago attacks the four and Brenner goes after him, catches him and beats him in the sprint — a first Grand Tour stage for the German, and the first in the history of Tudor. Behind, Gall attacks and Mas answers, and then García Pierna appears out of the breakaway to set a pace on the last two kilometres that finally does what nothing else has: Roglič comes off the wheel and loses fifteen seconds. Gall takes second overall at 2:06, the Slovenian slips to third, and Mas has now been the strongest man on the road on three summit finishes running.

The result