With the today’s stage the Vuelta is going to finish and everything looks to be settled. The team classification is won by Sky beating Movistar by half an hour. The mountain classification is won surprisingly by Egor Silin from Astana. The overall is won by Froome and Ghita wins the young riders classification. The only classification that can change is the points classification. Valverde has 17 points advantage over Froome though making it unlikely that it will change.




For the final time at the starting line


Froome and Valverde are easily spotted, Bouet and Ghita a bit harder

Despite it being the last stage, we still had a big breakaway. Rabon (Omega Pharma), Florencio (Katusha), Durasek (Lampre), De la Cruz (NetApp), Zaugg (Saxo Bank), De Marchi (Cannondale), Meintjes (MTN) and Chérel (AG2R) are the riders that will try to stay in front of the peloton. The 3 minute gap isn’t helping much.


the last breakaway of the Vuelta

Chérel is the first rider to go past the finish line but sadly for him, there are still 2 more laps to go on the final circuit. Argos, Orica and Euskaltel are the teams that have taken the charge of the peloton. The gap is down to 1,5 minutes.


two laps to go

We are into the last lap and the breakaway is still in front, only 44 seconds is the difference between the break and the peloton.


the end is getting close

The trains have appeared. Euskaltel is leading with their train for Lobato. Orica has a train for Matthews and Argos has a train for Degenkolb. Cristobal Riquelme, Navardauskas, Petacchi, Ciolek and Sutton are behind Matthews.


the trains for the final time

At 2.4 km the trains are still intact. Lobato is lead out by Tamouridis and Sánchez. Matthews is lead out by Davis and Impey. Degenkolb is lead out by Ghita and De Backer. All the other sprinters are still in Matthew’s wheel. Meanwhile Rabon is leading the race.



Sánchez and Tamouridis have pulled away from the trains and left Lobato in Degenkolb’s wheel. Ghita and Davis have also turned away from the trains and are leaving it now in De Backer and Impey hands. Cristobal Riquelme and Navardauskas are still in Matthews wheel.



De Backer has also pulled away early leaving Matthews with the best train. Impey dropped of Matthews perfectly but Cristobal Riquelme is right beside him. Navardauskas is also still in the mix as is Degenkolb. Lobato is a bit further back. The breakaway is barely in front. They could however get in the way of the sprinters



The sprinters are indeed blocked by the remaining breakaway members, they were much faster but the way the break was spread has blocked of the road completely.


a true roadblock

This means that instead of an expected sprinter it is Rabon that wins in Madrid!. Meintjes and Durasek that are responable for the road block finish 6th and 3rd. Chérel, Florencio and De Marchi make 2nd, 4th and 5th place. First rider from the peloton Impey in 7th. Zaugg was the weakest in the road block and was 8th. Matthews and Cristobal Riquelme make finish the top 10.



Froome finishes easily in the peloton meaning that he’s the 2013 winner of La Vuelta

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Frantisek Rabon	Omega Pharma - Quick•Step Cycling Team	2h02'31
2	Mikaël Chérel	AG2R La Mondiale	s.t.
3	Kristijan Durasek	Lampre - Merida	s.t.
4	Xavier Florencio	Katusha Team	s.t.
5	Alessandro De Marchi	Cannondale Pro Cycling	s.t.
6	Louis Meintjes	MTN - Qhubeka	s.t.
7	Daryl Impey	Orica - GreenEdge	s.t.
8	Oliver Zaugg	Team Saxo - Tinkoff	s.t.
9	Michael Matthews	Orica - GreenEdge	s.t.
10	Jorge Cristobal Riquelme	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	s.t.

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Chris Froome	Sky Procycling	82h18'37
2	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	+ 10'07
3	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	+ 14'01
4	Chris Horner	RadioShack - Leopard	+ 16'46
5	Daniel Martin	Garmin - Sharp	+ 22'54
6	Leopold König	Team NetApp - Endura	+ 30'48
7	Jurgen Van den Broeck	Lotto Belisol	+ 32'46
8	Samuel Sánchez	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 34'13
9	Nicolas Roche	Team Saxo - Tinkoff	+ 36'18
10	Oreste Ghita	Team Argos - Shimano	+ 36'56
11	Jakob Fuglsang	Astana Pro Team	+ 37'22
12	Rafal Majka	Team Saxo - Tinkoff	+ 41'36
13	Beñat Intxausti	Movistar Team	+ 43'04
14	Ivan Santaromita	BMC Racing Team	+ 46'42
15	Maxime Bouet	AG2R La Mondiale	+ 47'03
16	Daniel Moreno	Katusha Team	+ 47'19
17	Pieter Weening	Orica - GreenEdge	+ 51'22
18	Luis León Sánchez	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	+ 52'28
19	Josef Hintermuller	MTN - Qhubeka	+ 54'01
20	Damiano Caruso	Cannondale Pro Cycling	+ 54'34

Rank	Name	Team	Points	General
1	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	0	179
2	Chris Froome	Sky Procycling	0	162
3	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	0	129
4	Daniel Martin	Garmin - Sharp	0	94
5	John Degenkolb	Team Argos - Shimano	4	87

Rank	Name	Team	Mountain	General
1	Egor Silin	Astana Pro Team	0	51
2	Maxime Bouet	AG2R La Mondiale	0	38
3	Ion Izagirre	Euskaltel - Euskadi	0	37
4	Sandy Casar	FDJ.fr	11	25
5	Ivan Santaromita	BMC Racing Team	0	24

Rank	Team	Time	General Time
1	Sky Procycling	6h07'33"	247h00'29 (1)
2	Movistar Team	s.t.	+ 30'54 (2)
3	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.	+ 31'00 (3)
4	Garmin - Sharp	s.t.	+ 53'25 (4)
5	BMC Racing Team	s.t.	+ 1h04'01 (5)

Rank	Name	Team	Time	General Time
1	Oreste Ghita	Team Argos - Shimano	2h02'31	82h58'04 (1)
2	Rafal Majka	Team Saxo - Tinkoff	s.t.	+ 4'40 (2)
3	Josef Hintermuller	MTN - Qhubeka	s.t.	+ 17'05 (3)
4	Egor Silin	Astana Pro Team	s.t.	+ 24'54 (4)
5	Dominik Nerz	BMC Racing Team	s.t.	+ 29'48 (5)