The final stage. Mount Teide, the volcano here on Tenerife, will have the last say in this long Grand Tour - and with so many battles left to decide, from the very top of the standings downwards.
The first move of the day is a familiar face this past week, King of the Mountains leader Preidler.
An easy 6 points to add to his total, but there is chaos behind as already the peloton is reduced to 70 riders. This seems to be positioning more than anything because included in the group now 2 minutes down are the likes of: Denifl Valverde Valls Pinot Bibby Faiers
Most do make it back as we start the HC climb but the sprinters and other weak climbers do not nor do the likes of Ratiy, Moschella, Costagli and Medvedev.
Disastrous start for them, especially as the peloton is still pushing quite hard.
Preidler gets company up front, and it is his main rival Hoogerland! Stage winner Kunshin is there too, while Hivert and Poels attempt a fruitless chase - since they are not strong enough climbers to stay clear while the peloton ride a strong pace.
Eventually with 4km from the summit, the peloton switches off for a bit. Already reduced to 72, this pause to the carnage is a chance for some to regain contact.
Meanwhile the King of the Mountains jersey is about to be decided. Hoogerland failed to follow the moves of Preidler and Kunshin, and the Austrian Preidler now scores enough points to secure an unassailable lead.
The peloton swells to 121 on the descent and the last group to catch up featured Ratiy, Caruso and Moschella - who hit the summit well over 5 minutes behind the peloton.
Good news for them, not so good news for the sprinter's grupetto who are still 5 minutes off the back of the peloton and not looking like catching up.
Still, to reach the halfway point of the stage only 5 minutes behind is not a bad effort, and now they will just have to suffer their way through the second half to see if they can make the time limit.
Onto the Cat 1 climb and as the peloton's pace picks up again, and riders start to drop, one of the most bizarre sights of the race. 6 members of the Good Energy team have come to a virtual stand still, including 16th overall Faiers and 31st overall Cattaneo. The slowest of them is domestique Grippo, surely they can't be waiting for him? Faiers does have a 13 minute cushion to remain in the Top 20, but he needs to start riding again or else that won't be enough.
The only Good Energy rider ahead of them is Costagli and he is riding more sensibly, having joined a mid-stage attack along with 3 other riders who were off the back for the entire first HC climb after being caught out in an early split: Moschella and the Festina pair Caruso and Ratiy.
They are chasing after the lead two, after Preidler picked up more KoM points for winning the climb.
On the downhill towards the start of the big and hopefully decisive climb of the day, Caruso then does all the relaying. It does not pay off for Festina though, as Moschella and Costagli attack away from both Caruso and Ratiy on the steeper gradients.
With 8km to the top of the climb, the peloton are languishing some 4 and a half minutes behind the front of the race - Kunshin and Preidler - while the mid-stage attackers close in on those two.
But it is now showtime! Valverde attacks, Alarcon follows.
Then Alarcon moves past Valverde and leaves the veteran for dead. He moves into solo climbing mode - something that has worked out very well for him already this race.
There is action up front too, with Kunshin anticipating Costagli and Moschella closing in, and leaving Preidler behind.
A first chasing group behind Alarcon forms, featuring: Valverde Henao Montoya Machado Contador Gomez Marchante Valls
Surprisingly Valls is the leading Santander rider here, but another 9 are not far behind at all: Denifl Guldhammer Nibali Tenorio Roche Serrano Dombrowski Rujano Kohl
Pinot replaces Serrano in this group, which could be critical for the Teams Classification, while Valverde and Machado lead the aggressive attempts to bring back Alarcon.
But as you can see above, the Venezuelan has already ridden past the Festina riders and is now up to the back of Moschella and Costagli.
Kunshin reaches the top of the climb alone, he is on the way up to a Top 5 King of the Mountains position it seems, but he also wants another stage win.
But hot on his tails now is Alarcon, just 1 minute behind, and now ahead of Preidler.
Denifl leads over a chasing group of 18, they trail Alarcon by 40 seconds - where is the fight from Contador to try and bring that back and gain time of his own to win the Vuelta?
The problem now is that the hardest terrain is behind us. The remaining 13km features some downhill, some flat and a final climb averaging just 5% - not usually steep enough to create gaps.
But some riders only need seconds and one of them is Rujano, making a move on the downhill. Machado and Contador follow, this could be interesting.
But not for the first time they will regret the presence of Pinot, who is able to do Denifl's dirty work and chase them down.
But can he also chase down Alarcon?
The race leader is climbing again with now only 30 seconds up to Kunshin, and still 45 on the chasers - with Preidler in between.
Preidler will be caught by the chasers and when that happens, Tenorio attacks!
Alarcon catches Kunshin at the front of the race.
While saving energy earlier has worked for Tenorio and he gets a gap. He is not alone though, joined by Machado, Contador and then Nibali.
Rujano now leads the chasers. He hoped to be gaining on Nibali but that doesn't seem likely now.
Machado, Tenorio, Contador and Nibali do start closing the gap on Alarcon, but the finish line is coming into view.
Kunshin has been able to sit on for the last few kilometres and with the sprint now beginning, can he use that to his advantage?
There's a big battle brewing not only for 3rd on the stage, but the final podium spot. Machado tries to lead it off from the front. There are 8 bonus seconds available for 3rd, and that is all he needs to move ahead of Tenorio in GC!
The Vuelta is all about one man really though. Not expected to win the race at the start but now, it is only fitting that he wins the final stage to secure a remarkable Grand Tour victory. Jose Alarcon wins!!!
Kunshin hangs on for 2nd, and in that key battle for 3rd Contador fights through to spoil things for Machado. The Spaniard takes the last bonus seconds and ensures that fellow Spaniard Tenorio will take that final podium position.
Henao Montoya led the sprint behind, for 7th place, almost catching up with the four in front in the end.
This isn't going to change any GC positions though because although Gomez Marchante is in here and Roche is not, he needed to gain more than the resulting 24 second gap to make a difference.
Preidler rolls in behind Moschella, his King of the Mountains crown confirmed. The points gained by Hoogerland earlier kept the Dutchman in 2nd, with Alarcon and Kunshin rising up to 3rd and 4th today.
In the next group López Garcia and Ratiy finish side by side. This is frustrating for the Ukrainian, having just been caught by that group late on. It means those two finish on the same time in GC. This could be 19th for Lopez Garcia or it could be 20th - it depends on where Faiers is. A gap of around 12 minute is needed.
Lopez Garcia is the 3rd Santander rider to finish, and with the 3rd Wikipedia rider Mai finishing in the next group, this secures the Teams Classification for Santander.
Around 11 minutes later, Faiers appears, attacking away from teammate Cattaneo in the final kilometre to join the group in front. Evidently he did finally start riding properly at some point, and he has saved his Top 20 GC finish .. just. Ratiy therefore misses out on the Top 20 by less than a second.
That's about everything wrapped up .. except the sprinters. They are inside the final 10 kilometres now, with Degenkolb doing one last bit of excellent support work for Mohs, in a group that also includes Swift. The stage was fairly short though, so are they going to make the time cut?
Yes they are! They finish 45 minutes down, and after showing some stunning sprinting form, Mohs can take the Points jersey away too.
This does not mean safety for everybody though. It's another 7 minutes before the next group of 7 roll in: Gough Carvalho Ahlstrand Schlechter Merino Criado Krieger Santos
But they're too late. They've missed the time limit on the final stage.
A few minutes later Zabel finishes alone and out of time too, then finally there is Guerao. He is well over 20 minutes further behind Zabel, and won't even make it to the finish end.
As he falls into the Festina team car, that marks the end of this year's Vuelta a Espana.
