The Alto de L'Angliru already cast its shadow at the start of the Tour of Spain. The harbingers of the last executioner of this vuelta appeared too powerful, too steep. However, hardly anyone would have expected that the first two in the overall standings would be separated by just three seconds before the stage. The stage turned out to be correspondingly exciting.
In the fog that surrounded the Alto de L'Angliru, Kenny Elissonde (FDJ.fr) stormed to victory. The 22-year-old Frenchman had previously broken away with Paolo Tiralongo (Astana) from a leading group of almost twenty riders, which also included two Germans, Johannes Fröhlinger (Argos-Shimano) and Dominik Nerz (BMC). Above all, the Allgäu mink rode a strong final and crossed the finish line together with Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar).
The Italian Giro d'Italia winner Nibali attacked from the field six kilometers from the finish and went in pursuit of the disintegrating leading group. With his arrival, he initially put Chris Horner (Radio Shack-Leopard), Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) and Valverde under pressure. However, the American managed to get back to the Italian's rear wheel about two kilometers later. It finally showed that Astana had played its cards wrong. Although Tiralongo had been ordered back, Nibali only caught up with him when he already had Horner and Rodriguez in tow. Valverde, who by then was already more than ten seconds behind, benefited from this situation. Because while Nibali and Horner watched each other, he managed to continuously gain ground.
With three kilometers to go, Nibali increased the pace again, but this time he couldn't shake Horner. He, in turn, took his chance when the duo reached the group around Dominik Nerz and broke away with an irresistible start. By the time Horner crossed the finish line in second place behind Elissonde, he was 28 seconds ahead of Nibali. This means that the oldest driver of this Vuelta is also the winner of the tour - as long as nothing happens to him on tomorrow's final stage to Madrid. The 41-year-old American had to take a long break this season due to knee surgery, but is now celebrating his greatest career success to date.
The performance of the German formation NetApp-Endura can also be considered successful. The team was always active and was able to place a driver in the top 10 with Leopold König in ninth place overall.
The decision at Alto de L'Angliru is there here again in the video. [Link]
//Result
1. Kenny Elissonde (FDJ.fr) 3:55:36
2. Christopher Horner (RadioShack Leopard) 0:00:26
3. Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Movistar) 0:00:54
4. Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) 0:00:54
5. Andre Fernando Cardoso (Caja Rural) 0:00:54
6. Dominik Mink (BMC) 0:00:54
//In total
1. Christopher Horner (RadioShack Leopard) 81:52:01
2. Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) 0:00:37
3. Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Movistar) 0:01:38
4. Joaquim Rodriguez Oliver (Katusha) 0:03:22
5. Nicolas Roche (Saxo-Tinkoff) 0:07:11