The American Chris Horner (RadioShack Leopard) celebrated the biggest success of his long career in Madrid today. At 41, he is now not only the oldest Vuelta winner of all time, but also the first American since Greg LeMond to win a Grand Tour [both Lanca Armstrong and Floyd Landis celebrated their Tour de France subsequently denied, note d. Red.]. In Madrid, 37 seconds separate him from Vincenzo Nibali (Astana). He had fought a bitter battle with the Italian Giro d'Italia winner for the past three weeks. Nibali took the jersey off him twice in the process before pushing his limits in the last three days. To his credit, however, he did not give up without a fight and unleashed a firework of attacks on the way to the Alto de L'Angliru, probably the toughest climb in the country.
The final leg from Leganés to Madrid was 109.6 kilometers and started out as one would expect from final stages of the Grand Tours: calm. Only when the field reached the Spanish capital did the peloton gain momentum.
Javier Aramendia (Caja Rural) was the first rider to put his heart in his hand and attack from the field. Alessandro Vanotti (Astana) followed on his rear wheel. Together they worked out a maximum lead of forty seconds. However, on the 31-kilometer parade through Madrid, the field did not let them escape any further. The Garmin-Sharp and Lampre-Merida teams in particular were involved in the tracking work. A few kilometers from the finish, the duo was finally set again, when Orica-GreenEdge and Argos-Shimano were also in the lead.
Two kilometers before the finish, Zak Dempster (NetApp-Endura) attacked and thus heralded a gripping finale, at the end of which the Australian Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge) celebrated his second victory of the day at the Vuelta. Nikias Arndt (Argos-Shimano) in third place and Robert Wagner (Belkin) in tenth place ensured a good end from a German perspective. The ninth overall place of the Czech Leopold König, who brought the German team NetApp-Endura their first top 10 placement in a Grand Tour, also falls into this category.
# A picture that will no longer exist. The Euskaltel-Eudkadi team wins the team classification.
//Result
1. Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge) 2:44:00
2. Tyler Farrar (Garmin Sharp) 0:00:00
3. Nikias Arndt (Argos-Shimano) 0:00:00
4. Gianni Meersman (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) 0:00:00
5. Maximiliano Ariel Richeze (Lampre-Merida) 0:00:00
6. Grega Bole (Vacansoleil-DCM) 0:00:00
7. Adrien Petit (Cofidis) 0:00:00
8. Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg (Argos-Shimano) 0:00:00
9 Francesco Lasca (Caja Rural) 0:00:00
10. Robert Wagner (Belkin) 0:00:00
//In total
1. Christopher Horner (RadioShack Leopard) 84:36:04
2. Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) 0:00:37
3. Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Movistar) 0:01:36
4. Joaquim Rodriguez Oliver (Katusha) 0:03:22
5. Nicolas Roche (Saxo-Tinkoff) 0:07:11
6. Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2R La Mondiale) 0:08:00
7. Thibaut Pinot (FDJ.fr) 0:08:41
8. Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) 0:09:51
9. Leopold Konig (NetApp Endura) 0:10:11
10. Daniel Moreno Fernández (Katusha) 0:13:11