Contador seals overall 2014 Vuelta a España victory

Movistar may have missed out on the main prize, but Adriano Malori ensured the Spanish team finished the race in the same triumphant fashion they started it by winning a rain-affected final time trial in Santiago de Compostela. Three weeks on from Movistar’s success in the opening team time trial, the Italian TT specialist finished eight seconds ahead of Trek’s Jesse Sergent, with BMC’s Rohan Dennis another second back in third.

Race leader Alberto Contador took no chances on the wet course. After a wheel-spin on the start ramp, the Tinkoff-Saxo leader finished 101st on the night, 1:40 down on Malori, to confirm his third Vuelta victory and sixth Grand Tour success. His final margin over runner-up Chris Froome (Team Sky) was 1:10. Movistar’s Alejandro Valverde ended 1:50 back in third.

Like Sergent, Malori was among the early starters on the 9.7km course and made the best of the conditions on a tricky city centre circuit. Soon after the Italian finished, the heavens opened, drenching the course.

Dennis raced early when the rain came down, and was fastest at the 5km checkpoint. Although he was five seconds quicker than Malori at the check, the Australian had to ease off over the second part of the course. But his caution couldn’t prevent him hitting the deck as he rode over the slippery flagstones leading into the finish. No one went close to Malori’s time after this.

"I’ve been working as a teammate for the whole Vuelta except for yesterday, when the team told me to save energy," said Malori. "But with 4,000 metres of climbing, you can imagine how hard it was to save myself. But I felt very good. I immediately realised I was riding one of my best time trials of the season and that was confirmed by the watts I put out. I beat riders such as Jesse Sergent, who also rode before the rain, so I can be happy."

Although it had begun to dry as the top GC riders went out, several corners were still treacherous and none of the big guns dared to go all out for victory on the night. Valverde was the quickest of them, but even the Spanish time trial champion was 55 seconds slower than his Movistar teammate in 32nd place.

Froome, who had hoped to finish off the race in winning style, rolled home in 63rd place on the night, 1:13 down on Malori. But the Briton looked rapid compared to Contador, who clearly wanted to avoid any worrying complications in this final test.

"I am very happy with this victory. It’s a dream for me to win three Vueltas," said the Spaniard before he stepping up onto the victory podium. "I’ve had many highs and lows over the past two months, but I didn’t want to finish the season with a fall," he added in reference to his crash out of the Tour de France in July.

He praised both his Tinkoff-Saxo team, saying their work had been "incredible", and the fans at the roadside. "The public have encouraged me, they’ve been incredible. They’ve given me the strength to get to this point. This victory is for them."

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