Vuelta a España: Contador wins on Ancares

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Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) all but clinched the Vuelta a España title when he finished alone at the summit of the Ancares pass at the end of the penultimate stage 20 of the race. After fending off a number of attacks over the final six kilometres from his main rival, Team Sky’s Chris Froome, the Spaniard responded to the Briton’s final offensive with 500 metres remaining and countered with a blistering acceleration that Froome couldn’t follow

Having surged clear, Contador finished 16 seconds ahead of Froome. As he crossed the line, he delivered his “pistolero” celebration and pointed at the leg that he injured during the first week of the Tour de France in July, which put him out of that race and appeared to threaten his participation in the Vuelta.

The Tinkoff leader eased his way through the first week of the three-week race and over the part fortnight has clearly demonstrated he’s the strongest man in the field. His success at Ancares was his second stage win following his win last Monday on the Farrapona. This victory pushed his overall lead over Froome out to 1:37, putting him on the verge of a third Vuelta title with just tomorrow’s 9.7km time trial in Santiago de Compostela to come.

“We have to look at the [time trial] course, but with the advantage we’ve gained, unless there’s some kind of breakdown the race is won,” said Contador. “The tactic was simple: follow Froome’s wheel, although I had to have the legs to do so because he was very strong. I am very happy. It’s another Grand Tour victory, I’ve won the two ‘queen’ stages and couldn’t ask for more.”

Froome may have failed to unseat the race leader, but he did gain the best part of a minute on third-placed Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), who was dropped when the Sky man delivered his first increase of pace 6.5km from the finish. That cemented his position as the Vuelta’s likely runner-up, 58 seconds ahead of Valverde, who himself has more than a minute in hand on Joaquim Rodríguez (Katusha) back in fourth.

How it unfolded

It was no surprise when Sky’s Dario Cataldo didn’t take to the start following his bad crash towards the end of yesterday’s stage. Lampre’s Filippo Pozzato and Omega Pharma’s Pieter Serry were also missing from the peloton as it set off for the Puerto de Ancares.

The action was frantic from the start. The peloton split early on, with all of the big guns in the front group. Soon after the field came back together, four riders clipped off the front. But Dmitry Kozontchuk (Katusha), Rinaldo Nocentini (AG2R-La Mondiale), Winner Ancona (Lampre-Merida) and Vincent Jérôme (Europcar) were unable to make their attack stick.

After the peloton re-formed, five riders went away. Laurens Ten Dam (Belkin), Lagos de Covadonga stage-winner Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre-Merida), George Bennett (Cannondale), Jérôme Coppel (Cofidis) and Maxime Mederel (Europcar) made the cut, although Ten Dam and Bennett soon dropped back from the group. Omega Pharma’s Wout Poels swapped places with them to make it four up front.

With an hour gone and 42km covered, this quartet managed to establish a solid lead. By the 54km mark they were four-and-a-half minutes clear. Going through the first sprint at Sarria after 89km, their advantage topped out at just under 10 minutes.

Sky and Tinkoff reacted at this point. Their pacemaking on the front of the peloton steadily trimmed the breakaway’s lead. Crossing the first of the day’s four categorised climbs, the second-category Vilaesteva, the escapees led by 6:47 with 75km remaining. When Niemiec failed to pick up any points on the top of that climb, Caja Rural’s Luis León Sánchez was confirmed as the victor of the King of the Mountains competition.

With Sky and now Astana pressing consistently, the break’s advantage continued to tumble. On the testing first-category Alto de Folgueiras de Aigas, Poels couldn’t maintain the pace set by his three fellow escapees, whose lead was a mere 45 seconds over the red jersey group going over the top.

Although Niemiec pressed hard on the descent, the chance of him repeating his Covadonga heroics had long gone. Coppel chased across to him before the final climb and they started up the Ancares together, with Mederel around 10 seconds back.

The peloton soon snaffled up the Europcar rider. By then they also had Coppel and Niemiec in their sights, but not before the pair had taken the points and bonus seconds at the second sprint, where Froome nipped out of the pack to take third and move two seconds closer to Contador.

Niemiec delayed the inevitable with another attack, but just inside the 10km banner the Sky-led red jersey group eased past him. All of the favourites were tucked in behind them, but when the gradient pitched up to 18% several fell back, including BMC’s Samuel Sánchez and Katusha’s Dani Moreno.

Rodríguez responded to the loss of his key lieutenant by going on the attack. No one responded immediately, but Valverde eventually had to in order to defend his place on the podium. Giant’s Warren Barguil initially went with him, but soon fell back, as Froome, Contador and Astana’s Fabio Aru cruised onto Valverde’s wheel.

With 7km to the finish, Froome moved to the front of this quartet, with Rodríguez still 20 seconds clear. On the steep ramp that came soon after, the Briton’s legs started to fizz round, his attack seeing off Aru permamently and Contador for a moment. Then Valverde appeared to miss a gear and almost came to a stop. That hesitation left Froome and Contador chasing alone behind Rodríguez.

Froome made at least three more attacks over the next three kilometres. The first brought Rodríguez back into line, the second distanced Valverde as he seemed about to regain contact, the third saw off Rodríguez. But the Sky leader couldn’t shake Contador.

While Valverde made quick work of catching and passing Rodríguez, Froome continued to lead. At the one-kilometre banner he attacked once again. Five hundred metres later, an instant after someone in the crowd threw what appeared to be a stick at him, he went again. But Contador answered these thrusts, then delivered a decisive one of his own. The stage and the race were the Spaniard’s, but credit to Froome too for mounting such a sustained challenge and helping to make this the most gripping grand tour of the season.

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