Vuelta a Espana: Froome wins stage 19 time trial

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Chris Froome (Team Sky) came roaring back into Vuelta a España contention with a storming time trial victory on stage 19, putting 2:16 into race leader Nairo Quintana (Movistar) to leave the race poised for a dramatic finale on tomorrow’s penultimate stage summit finish.

Quintana retained his overall lead but his 3:37 advantage over Froome was slashed to 1:21 as the Tour de France champion clocked 46:33 over the gently rolling 37km course in Calpe.

Froome’s time was some 43 seconds quicker than second-placed Jonathan Castroviejo (Movistar), the former Spanish time trial champion having posted what looked like it might be the stage-winning time earlier in the day. Giant-Alpecin’s Tobias Ludvigsson was third on the stage with a well-paced ‘negative split’ ride.

Quintana puffed out his cheeks as he crossed the line, having been under pressure since the opening kilometres. He may still be the favourite to wrap up the title tomorrow, but it will be a tough day with his old rival now too close for comfort. For Froome, his dream of winning the Vuelta after three top four finishes comes back into focus. In fact, if he hadn’t lost 2:40 in the Quintana/Contador stage 15 ambush, he’d be in the red jersey and the driving seat right now.

“I’m really happy with result, especially at this point in the season,” he said. “There’s still one more day of tough racing – let’s see. Quintana has more than one minute of an advantage, but we’re going to keep fighting all the way.

“We’ll see tomorrow. I will speak with my teammates tonight, but I think Quintana has a really good team around him, and it’s going to be difficult to beat him.”

Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) put in an assured display to finish eighth on the stage with 48:30 – though he did fade slightly in the final third of the course – and he moved into third overall for his efforts. Esteban Chaves (Orica-BikeExchange) was the rider to be usurped as the diminutive Colombian, as might have been predicted, lost a heap of time, finishing 3:13 down on Froome.

Contador is a three-time Vuelta winner who, incidentally, has never ‘not won’ the Vuelta when he’s raced it, but at 3:43 down, it would take something pretty spectacular – even by his standards – to make it four. There’s a clear gap behind the top four, but Andrew Talansky (Cannondale-Drapac) used his strong time trialling skills to leapfrog Simon Yates into fifth place, while the lightweight Davide Formolo dropped to 10th.

Perhaps the day’s big loser was Samuel Sanchez (BMC), who crashed heavily in the last part of the course and fell out of the top 10, crossing the line battered, bruised, and dejected, with doubts over whether he’ll be able to continue.

How it unfolded

Svein Tuft (Orica-BikeExchange) was the first rider off the ramp in Xabia but we had to wait until Belgian time trial champion Victor Campenaerts (LottoNL-Jumbo) for a time that might serve as a marker for the stage win. He clocked 48:20 but was soon usurped by a strong ride from his compatriot Yves Lampaert (Etixx-QuicStep), whose lead stood for some time.

One notable performance was that of Chad Haga, who clocked 49:20 to put himself on the provisional podium at the time. The American was severely injured in the horrific Giant-Alpecin training crash just a stone’s throw away in January and tweeted beforehand: "I always like TT's that suit me, but this one carries special significance: I didn't finish my last ride in Calpe."

Lampaert was eventually taken from the hotseat by Tobias Ludvigsson (Giant-Alpecin) who flew under the radar for much of the course. Sixth at the time at the first checkpoint and fourth at the second, he timed his effort perfectly to take the provisional lead by 1.97 seconds.

The big Swede was in the hotseat for less than 20 minutes as Castroviejo stormed round the course. At the time the Spaniard was quickest at every check, getting stronger as the course went on to better Ludvigsson’s time by a whopping 40 seconds.

The GC battle ignites

As the afternoon drew on, the general classification contenders emerged to being their warm-ups knowing there was much at stake.

Two-time Vuelta winner Alberto Contador was the first of the ‘big four’ off the ramp and he soon settled into his rhythm and marked out his credentials for the podium, going only marginally slower than Castroviejo at the first check.

Chaves, third overall and 3:57 down at the start of the day, was the next off the ramp but the diminutive Colombian is far less suited to the discipline than Contador, and his margin of five seconds over Contador quickly evaporated.

Froome, second overall and with a score to settle after being ambushed on stage 15, immediately set out his intentions with an absolutely storming start. He was a full 28 seconds up on Castroviejo’s time at the first check and the pressure was well and truly on the race leader Quintana behind.

Limiting the losses was the aim of the day for the Colombian, but he’d be forgiven for panicking when he hit the first check 46 seconds in arrears. As Chaves continued to haemorrhage time, Froome tightened the screw, increasing his virtual advantage over Quintana to 1:33 at the second checkpoint at 24.3km. With Contador riding strongly but fading slightly towards the end, the Froome assault continued and into the final part of the course the finish line couldn’t come soon enough for the Colombian duo.

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