The big day is here. Clear skies, the wind is gone, it's time to crown a winner of the 2014 Vuelta a Burgos. Only the strong are going to survive today.
The favourites are: Arroyo, Iglinski and Rodrigues.
Evonik should be looked at to control most of the pace having 1-2 in GC at the moment with Hansen and Joeaar.
Although both really don't stand a chance against the climbers.
Nicacio is in the best position (3rd overall) to capture the overall victory.
It's a 7-man breakaway that gets away.
Lewis Esquivel Umerbekov Semple Menchov (Best placed in GC: +2'44" ) Chamorro Bajadali
They all have their sights on the KoM jersey with plenty of points available today. The have to catch Navarro who has 18. Chamorro doing his best to protect his teammate.
Menchov is only rider to contest the sprint points all day and picks up 18 bonus seconds. So he needs 2'26" to win.
This just got interesting real fast. Iglinksi and Taciak both get one of their helpers involved in the action early on.
Chamorro does get to the top first which guarantees he will win the KoM competition by surpassing his teammate on the final stage.
But it's the action behind him everyone wants to see. The recent attackers have mingled in with the remains of the breakaway. About 40 seconds ahead of the peloton, which no longer contains...
The overall leader Hansen or Joeaar. They have both been dropped.
Not much of a surprise, although their manager would have wished they stay in contract for a littler longer. Also in this group is 8th overall Khatuntsev.
Even further back is 5th overall Oba.
Sighs of relief as Bonsucro and ONCE drags everyone back as we start the next cat. 2 which sets up to the climb to the finish.
Let the attacks start again! We are in for a treat today with no GC leader to control the race.
Txurruka, Chamorro, Bakhin, Diniz and Sorensen have worked too hard to give up now. They all put in another dig and get a nice 20 second gap. Seems like a wasted effort though as Bonsucro and ONCE are just toying with them at this point.
They do hold on to the top of the climb though, 11kms to go.
Txurruka thinks better of his move and decides to drop back to assist Nicacio, and in doing so Bakhin, Diniz and Sorensen follow his lead in return to the peloton.
The peloton seems a little confused as to why the gave up so easily. Their tempo eases up at the base of the climb waiting for somebody to make the first move because no wants to be the pacemaker up the climb.
Chamorro is using this to his full advantage! He decided to keep going when Txurruka stopped and now has a 2 minute gap on the peloton with 7kms to go! Chamorro started the day +6'01" on GC, so the peloton doesn't seem worried.
Then again strange the favourites would get this close to the finish and let the stage win slip away like this. Chamorro does deserve it after a ride like this though.
Not so fast! Top favourite Arroyo (+1'07" GC) finally decides enough is enough and shows his cards. This is a monster of an attack! He is followed by:
Did none of the other favourites get a glimpse of Arroyo? David can't believe it when he looks back and doesn't see Nicacio, Iglinski, Fernandez, or Rodrigues on his back wheel.
Bonsucro decides to give chase with Camargo. The other favourites are looking around, they know they should attack since Arroyo is getting away but are content to let Camargo pull the group up the climb.
Arroyo is around Chamorro to take the lead. The gap back to the peloton is one minute. He has pulled on virtual yellow. 5kms to go.
Nothing from the other GC contenders yet. They are running out of time.
Bonsucro is giving it their all to keep Nicacio in the fight for yellow, but ONCE is making a mockery of them by telling Castano he can launch an attack now.
Arroyo is easily riding off in the distance. Incredible.
Fernandez follows Castano's attack.
3kms to go. Iglinski can't wait any longer and catches Castano and Fernandez as they reach the group of Woods, Rosa and Richardson.
Nicacio has jumped across as well.
In front of them is still:
+45" Chamorro and Dabrowski
+1'20" Arroyo
What is left of the peloton is only 15 seconds behind them as well.
Castano and Iglinski break away from Fernandez and Nicacio who are then joined by Raisin. Castano doing his best to set a false tempo so he doesn't bring Iglinski up to his leader Arroyo.
1700 meters to go. While...
Arroyo is already under the banner and heading to the line.
He put his stamp of authority on this stage. Start the clock, but it's pretty obvious he has already won the 2014 Vuelta a Burgos.
Dabrowski picked out the right move and is reward with a 2nd place, he had lost too much time earlier in the tour to get a good GC results however.
He finishes 1'22" behind Arroyo (confirming the Spaniard has indeed won).
Chamorro gets passed by Iglinski and Castano right before the line. He will happily take his 5th place for his efforts.
Iglinski finishes 2'08" behind Arroyo but stayed with Castano ensuring him a 2nd overall place beating Arroyo's team mate in GC by 3 seconds.
Then it's Fernandez, Raisin and Nicacio. They finish with the same time meaning their overall place is in the reverse order: Nicacio 4th, Raisin 5th and Fernandez 6th. Fernandez wins the points competition.
The peloton comes to line as one big group a few seconds behind them.
The rest of the top 10 in GC is sorted out in this order:
7th Taciak, 8th Paulinho, 9th Parra Bustamante and 10th Bochman.
Rodrigues finishes 11th overall after being invisible today. Very disappointing after starting off the tour with a stage win three days ago.
Gökhan Hasta is the best young rider finishing 25th overall, 4'46" behind Arroyo. While ONCE takes the team competition over Live Nation.
Spain. 
