Vuelta a Espana: Quintana seals overall victory on Alto de Aitana

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The anticipated onslaught from Chris Froome (Sky) was late in coming on the Alto de Aitana, and when his volley of attacks eventually arrived, Nairo Quintana (Movistar) never yielded so much as an inch to seal overall victory at the Vuelta a España, while Pierre Latour (AG2R-La Mondiale) took the stage honours on the penultimate day of the race.

For the bones of a week – ever since Quintana stole a march on Froome on the road to Formigal last Sunday, in fact – the Vuelta had seemed to be slouching dutifully towards Madrid with Quintana as winner-elect, only for Froome to produce a remarkable time trial in Calpe that suddenly catapulted him back into contention.

Quintana lost more than two minutes of his advantage on Friday afternoon, but still had a buffer of 1:21 over Froome ahead of stage 20, where his task was a simple one in theory, if not in practice. The Colombian has been the best climber in the race, and he knew that he needed only follow Froome on the Alto de Aitana to win the Vuelta.

With five kilometres to go, Froome launched his first acceleration from a red jersey group that had already been whittled down to its bare bones, but Quintana was swiftly across to his wheel. Froome accelerated again and again, in that curious high cadence style of his, but could never once put daylight between himself and Quintana, who followed impassively.

Entering the final kilometre, it was already clear that Quintana had the Vuelta in hand, and the battle became a matter of pride, but still Froome could not discommode the man he had beaten three times at the Tour de France. After a subdued Grande Boucle this year, where he finished a disappointed third, Quintana had a point to prove at this Vuelta.

Quintana duly tacked on acceleration of his own within sight of the finish to place 10th on the stage, a couple of seconds ahead of Froome, who sat up and applauded the red jersey as he crossed the line. (Froome's largesse did not, apparently, extend to the waiting media, as he preferred to turn and ride back down the mountain than speak to the television reporters at the finish).

"Froome started attacking very early today, even on the descent of the Rates, but we were always attentive and on that final climb I had no problem to defend myself from the attacks," Quintana said. "He's a great rival, and he did a super time trial yesterday. That made me suffer, he is always my top rival."

Chaves dislodges Contador

The Froome-Quintana duel was the centrepiece of a stage that had numerous subplots all vying for attention. Up front, the escape of the day was engaged in a brutal slugging match for the stage honours, with the young Latour eventually outlasting Darwin Atapuma (BMC) in a bout where each man seemed to be repeatedly picking himself up off the canvas.

Esteban Chaves (Orica-BikeExchange), meanwhile, dislodged Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) from the third step of the podium by setting his team to work from almost midway through the stage, and then bounding clear of the red jersey group on the penultimate climb, the category 2 Puerto de Tudons, with some 45 kilometres still to race.

By that point, Contador had no Tinkoff teammates for company in the small group, and though Yury Trofimov dropped back to lend a hand, over the top, Chaves' lead quickly stretched out towards a minute. Chaves was aided, too, by an MVP showing from Damien Howson, who was positioned in the day's early break expressly to help his leader on the long, fast descent ahead of the Aitana.

Come the lower slopes of the 21-kilometre long Aitana, Chaves had a margin of almost two minutes in hand on the red jersey group, where Contador was reduced to trying to manage the situation rather than actively seeking to rectify it for himself. Showing few signs of tiring, Chaves simply tapped out his tempo all the way to the top, and though the accelerations of Froome would eventually bring the red jersey group much closer, he had enough time in hand to dislodge Contador from third.

Chaves eventually crossed the line in 9th on the stage, 3:17 down on Latour and only 46 seconds ahead of Quintana, but 1:25 ahead of Contador – enough to move him onto the podium by a mere 13 seconds.

Andrew Talansky (Cannondale-Drapac), meanwhile, withstood Simon Yates' probing on the final climb and then kicked his way clear of the Briton in the final kilometres to seal fifth place overall, a return to form for the American after a trying couple of years since his 2014 Dauphine victory.

Stage honours

On a day of 100 stories, it seems unfair to relegate Latour's to a footnote, but the Frenchman – still only 22, remember – showed enough to suggest that he will earn plenty of headlines in his own right in the years to come.

The stage, which featured four category 2 climbs ahead of the Aitana, began at a ferocious pace, but the presence of Sky, Movistar and Tinkoff riders in the early moves meant that they were unable to gain any traction. Froome himself even got in the act on the descent of the Col des Rates, as he tracked teammate Michal Golas, though Quintana was wise to the move.

It wasn't until the midpoint of the stage, with some 95 kilometres still to go, that the race took on some kind of shape, with Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) and Rudy Molard (Cofidis) escaping, and a chase group comprising Latour, Atapuma, Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar), Yuri Trofimov (Tinkoff), David Lopez (Team Sky), Robert Gesink (Lotto NL Jumbo), Damien Howson (Orica - BikeExchange), Fabio Felline (Trek - Segafredo), Pavel Kochetkov (Katusha), Bart De Clercq (Lotto Soudal), Ben King (Cannondale - Drapac), Mathias Frank, Clément Chevrier (IAM Cycling), Valerio Conti (Lampre - Merida) and Lilian Calmejane (Direct Energie) forming behind them.

The two leaders stayed 1:40 clear of the chasers for all the way to the base of the Aitana, while they were more than 10 minutes ahead of the peloton for much of the afternoon. The chasing group was twice disrupted by crashes – Rojas crashed out of the Vuelta on the descent of the Tollos, while Chevrier was brought down by a spectator near the top of the Tudons – but it remained otherwise intact until the Aitana.

On the Aitana, Sanchez rid himself of Molard, while Atapuma, Frank and Latour eventually forged across to the Spaniard with 5 kilometres remaining. Atapuma accelerated just as the catch was made, but while he was able to shake off Frank at the third attempt, Latour proved a tougher out, and the two slugged it out all the way to the summit.

Riding side by side into the final kilometre, they were almost caught by Fabio Felline, who had escaped the attention of the television cameras all the way up the climb but finished at a rate of knots. A brace of accelerations from Latour ended the Italian's challenge, but when Atapuma came around him with 200 metres to go, it seemed as though the AG2R man would have to settle for second.

Ultimately, however, Latour would be the last man standing, as he caught and passed Atapuma within sight of the line to claim the maiden Grand Tour stage win of his young career.

"I came here looking to do something on GC but I messed up in the split last weekend and I was disappointed with that," Latour said, though the day belonged to Quintana.

"It went very well on that last climb, but if it seemed easy from the television, that wasn't because it was easy, but because the team made it easier for me," Quintana said.

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