Results 20th stage Vuelta
1. Pierre Latour (fra)
2. Darwin Atapuma (col) + 0.02
3. Fabio Felline (ita) + 0.17
4. Mathias Frank (swi) + 0.40
5. Robert Gesink (nld) + 1.03
6. Bart De Clercq (bel) + 1.28
7. Rudy Molard (fra) + 2.02
8. Lilian Calmejane (fra) + 3.01
9. Esteban Chaves (col) + 3.17
10. Nairo Quintana (col) + 4.03
11. Chris Froome (gbr) + 4.05
12. Andrew Talansky (usa) + 4.34
13. Alberto Contador (spa) + 4.41
14. Simon Yates (gbr) + 5.04
17. Alejandro Valverde (spa) + 5.38
23. George Bennett (nzl) + 6.06
30. Michele Scarponi (ita) + 9.35
GC after 20th stage
1. Nairo Quintana (col)
2. Chris Froome (gbr) + 1.23
3. Esteban Chaves (col) + 4.08
4. Alberto Contador (spa) + 4.21
5. Andrew Talansky (usa) + 7.43
6. Simon Yates (gbr) + 8.33
7. David de la Cruz (spa) + 11.18
8. Daniel Moreno (spa) + 13.04
9. Davide Formolo (ita) + 13.14
10. George Bennett (nzl) + 14.07
11. Michele Scarponi (ita) + 15.33
12. Alejandro Valverde (spa) + 15.57
13. Jean Christophe Peraud (fra) + 18.22
14. Ben Hermans (bel) + 19.10
15. Egor Silin (rus) + 22.05
Race report
After a number of early breaks, the race explodes at the Coll de Rates with an attack by a huge group. Elissonde jumps clear in search of KOM-points, yet he doesn’t make it as Fraile, Warbasse, Bilbao and Didier chase him down just before the summit to leave him alone. Fraile takes most KOM-points at the top.
Before hitting the Valle de Ebo the front group and chasers come together, yet a lot of riders can’t follow the pace until only Robert Gesink, Jan Bakelants, Luis León Sánchez, Laurent Didier, Mathias Frank, Rudy Molard and Pavel Kochetkov are left up front. At the top Molard and Sánchez are the last survivors.
At the Alto de Tollos Yuri Trofimov, David Lopez, Darwin Atapuma, Robert Gesink, Damien Howson, Fabio Felline, Pierre Latour, Pavel Kochetkov, Bart De Clercq, Ben King, Mathias Frank, Clément Chevrier, Valerio Conti and Lilian Calmejane start chasing. Kenny Elissonde bridges over.
The two leaders put a maximum of 15 minutes into the pack, while the chasers linger for quite a while at 2 to 3 minutes.
Orica brings the gap in the peloton down before Chaves attacks at the Puerto de Tudons. His team mate Howson and together they tackle the closing climb.
With 12 kms remaining Sánchez goes solo. Atapuma chases him down, with Latour and Frank close behind, and they leaves him alone with 4 kms left. Meanwhile, Froome gives all he’s got on the lower slopes, yet Quintana stick to his wheel with ease.
Latour joins Atapuma and puts pressure on him, but when the Colombian accelerates the young Frenchman seems to crack. But not so. He comes back and outpowers his rival in the last hundred metres. Great victory for a great talent.
Chaves’ attack is just enough to go over Contador in the GC. The smiling Colombian finishes 13 seconds ahead of El Pistolero.
Quintana outsprints Froome on the top to show who’s boss. The Tour France-winner applauds.
Vuelta a España 2016 Stage 20: Route maps, height profiles, etc
Click on the images to zoom
