Vuelta a Espana: Contador conquers the Angliru

Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) took an emotional win atop the Angliru, soloing in to win Stage 20 of the Vuelta a Espana.  It was his first win of the season, and the last of his professional career, as he brings down the curtain on his racing life with the final stage of the Vuelta to Madrid on Sunday evening. 

Team Sky's Wout Poels and Chris Froome followed him across the line 20 seconds down. Another strong performance by Froome saw him maintain his overall lead and set up his Tour de France-Vuelta a Espana double.

Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) suffered after crashing on a descent but recovered enough and limited his losses to keep his second place overall at 2:15. Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) dropped back on the closing climb to lose his podium place, with Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) moving up to third at 2:51. Contador’s escape and win moved him up to fourth overall at 3:11. with Kelderman fifth going into the final stage now at 3:15.

“There couldn’t be a better finish, winning on the Angliru, the end of my career, no way for a better end,” Contador said after the stage. “I knew the Cordal has had a lot of history, lots of falls, and knew I had to go with Pantano on the descent to make the gap.”

A large escape group got away early on the stage but started falling apart as soon as the climbing of the Angliru started. Contador and all the other top favourites stayed together for much of the stage but that favourites’ group shrank mightily as the steep climb began to hurt.

Finally, near the bottom of the Cordal descent - the penultimate climb of the 117.5km stage, with the Angliru approaching Contador took off with teammate Jarlinson Pantano. The Spaniard was soon on his own, passing all those leftover from the lead group. His gap over the Froome group was never much above a minute, but it was enough to give him a special victory ahead of Poels and Froome.

"Absolute incredible feeling," Froome said at the finish.

"And what a way to end such a massive three weeks of racing, having completed the Tour/Vuelta double, that’s an amazing feeling. Thanks to everyone for all of the support for the last few weeks. It was such a tough climb. We did everything we could to try and catch Alberto, and my congratulations to him, to finish his career like this is beautiful."

The most feared stage of the Vuelta

Rain greeted the riders at the start of the most-feared Vuelta stage, which opened with an immediate unranked climb and some serious attacks as the overall contenders saved themselves for the final climb to the exposed Angliru. 

After nine kilometres into the only 117km long stage, a large group got away, sparking a fast day of racing.

There were some very big names in the group: Julian Alaphilippe, Enric Mas (Quick-Step Floors), Nicolas Roche (BMC), Adam Yates, Simon Yates (Orica-Scott), Nelson Oliveira, Marc Soler (Movistar), Soren Kragh Andersen (Team Sunweb), Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe), Romain Bardet (AG2R-La Mondiale), Rui Costa, Jan Polanc (UAE Team Emirates), Tomasz Marczynski (Lotto-Soudal), Tobias Ludvigsson (FDJ), Igor Antón (Dimension Data), Lluis Mas, Jaime Roson (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Stefan Denifl (Aqua Blue Sport).

However the peloton, and especially Trek-Segafredo, were reluctant to let this dangerous group go, and the gap was never more than 1:10. It was clear that Contador wanted to win. Fortunately, the rain had stopped, but the roads were still damp. Astana, seeing a chance to get Ilnur Zakarin on the final podium, joined in the lead work.

The gap rose to 1:30, but the break only had  1:20 with them as they started up the day’s first climb, the cat. 1 Alto de la Cobertoria. 8.1km long, the average gradient was 8.6 per cent, with sections of 18 per cent. The break shattered in the renewed rain as the climbing began. Behind them, the gap increased as Team Sky and Bahrain-Merida moved into the lead.

Marczynski led the way over the summit, with the field at 1:20. On the descent, he got away with Andersen and Soler, and they were soon joined by several others. Behind them, Vincenzo Nibali and his Bahrain-Merida teammates tried to get away from the by now greatly reduced field, but Team Sky quickly put an end to that idea.

Having reached the bottom of the descent, it was time to start going up again. This time it was the Alto del Cordal, with an average gradient of 8.6 per cent. Soler attacked out of the lead group with 25km to go but was soon joined again by Andersen, the Yates brothers, Marczynski, Bardet and Mas. They all struggled to stay together on the climb, with Bardet doing much of the lead work.

The favourites were only a minute behind, catching and passing those who had fallen out of the lead group. Zakarin had missed out on the group, and had to work his way up on the climb through the rain and team cars. The sun then put in another appearance, but the roads were still covered with water. Soler moved out to take the mountain points, but the leaders’ group was less than a minute back.

From the summit of the Cordal, there were only 21km left on the stage, but not one of them would be easy. The rain started again on the descent, and one race motorbike crashed into the guardrail. Soler sadly soon followed, as his front wheel slipped away. That left Marczynski in the lead.

Nibali also crashed on the descent too, and had to work his way back to the front, with the help of a teammate. David de la Cruz (Quick Step) also fell victim to the slick roads, and had to abandon the race, losing his chance of a top ten finish.

Once again the next climb started immediately, and this was no ordinary climb, but the much-feared Angliru. It was time for the final showdown.

Marczynski started the climb with about 18 seconds over Andersen. It would not be enough.

Contador's audacious attack

Behind Contador, Jarlinson Pantano and Enric Mas (Quick-Step Floors) took off from the favourite’s group, as Andersen dropped back to wait for Kelderman. The Contador group caught and passed the remains of the attackers and soon he was at the front of the race together with Mas, Soler, Marczynski, and Bardet, but the Froome group was only some 40 seconds back.

Marczynski was the next to drop back. Bahrain Merida moved to the head of the chase group of only some 12 riders, as the steep gradients started up.

Contador and Soler went into the “goat path” section of the Angliru together, but then Contador was suddenly alone at the head of things and facing the fight of his life.

He flew up the double-digit gradients of the climb, building up a lead of more than a minute on the Froome group. Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) was the first to go from the favourites’ group, and he rather easily pulled away. Nibali was there with teammate Franco Pellizotti but unable to attack Froome. 

Contador continued to grind his way up the 20 per cent gradient in the final kilometres, almost hidden by the massive crowds cheering him on.

Nibali had trouble on the final two kilometres, falling back from the Froome group, which also contained Kelderman and Zakarin. Froome and Wout Poels then took off in pursuit of Contador he still had a minute. Kelderman was the next one to fall back.

Visibly suffering, Contador made his way up to the slightly flatter final kilometre, pushing his gear with the final drops of strength. Froome was only 34 seconds back and suddenly became a threat. Froome and Poels flew up the mountain, but with 30 seconds to close at the final km marker, and a flatter course, Contador had no problem maintaining his slim lead and crossed the line letting off his Pistolero celebration salute.

The two Team Sky riders came in 17 seconds down, with Zakarin fourth at 35 seconds. Nibali was almost a minute down, with Kelderman losing significant time. The last climb of the 2017 Vuelta a Espana had lived up to expectation. Now only the celebrations in Madrid remain. 

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