Chris Froome battles the savage gradient to the finish, but had he just neutralised an attack by Nicolas Roche at a crucial time in the final of the stage?
After the intense battle up the final climb on Sunday’s stage 9 of the Vuelta to Alto de Puig Llorença, a significant number of social media users questioned if Chris Froome had chased down team mate Nicolas Roche at a key point.
The video capturing the key moments is at the very bottom of this piece.
Inside the final 3km, it was eventual stage winner and new overall leader Tom Dumoulin (Giant Alpecin) who did all of the damage.
Of the Team Sky riders, Roche and Froome were in the select group along with Mikel Nieve and Sergio Luis Henao.
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Froome appeared to be having most trouble holding his place, yo-yoing off the back with the constant injections of speed by Dumoulin and the Movistar duo of Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde.
However, with 1.8km remaining, Froome fought his way back into the group as in stalled between attacks.
The respite was short lived, with Dumoulin attacking again with 1.7km remaining and getting a gap immediately.
It was Roche who sprang from the whittled down group, with then race Esteban Chaves of Orica-GreenEDGE immediately going after him.
But as Roche and the Colombian just behind him distanced the group a little, it was Froome who went after them; towing the others across.
At that time, a stall of even a few seconds in the group may have seen Chaves and Roche pull out a bigger gap and go off in pursuit of Dumoulin who was by now 12 seconds ahead.
But that racing chance was taken from them by Froome closing the gap. Or did Froome simply not want to let Chaves gain any more time on him?
Roche then did a long pull on the front of the group, with Froome attacking hard from just behind him with 1.2km to go.
He was caught by the group, with Roche slipping off the back just as Froome made his move.
Roche has been battling like a warrior on this Vuelta; two crashes in two days not enough to derail his hopes of a big general classification ride.
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Once Froome was back in with the big favourites, it was Rafal Majka of Tinkoff-Saxo who attacked after lone leader Dumoulin.
But Froome went after the Pole and this time put in a massive surge, marked by Joaquim Rodriguez, to catch Dumoulin.
Once the juncture was made, Rodriguez attacked.
But Froome went after him and caught him; attacking him hard and riding away from Rodriguez and Dumoulin just inside 300 metres remaining of the uphill finish.
Rodriguez tried desperately to catch the Briton, but was unable to.
And when Rodriguez slowed a little, Dumoulin came around him and achieved the apparently impossible task of closing the gap of a couple of seconds to Froome; passing him to win the stage and take the overall win.
Roche was to come home in an impressive 8th place; limiting his losses to 31 seconds on the winner and 29 seconds to team mate Froome who was 2nd on the stage, with Chaves relinquishing 59 seconds.
Dumoulin went into the lead by a not insignificant 57 seconds from Rodriguez, who was 3rd on the stage just 5 seconds down.
Chaves slipped from the race lead to 3rd overall, 59 seconds down on Dumoulin and Roche going down one spot to 4th at 1:07.
Froome jumped from 11th place to 8th overall. And having started the stage some 46 seconds down on Roche, that deficit is now just 11 seconds.
And while he looked vulnerable in the first week of the racing, Froome seems to be coming into contention more, with hopes the leadership of Team Sky may pass to Roche having taken a hit on Sunday.
Have a look at the clip below and see if you think Froome was chasing Roche or if he was simply trying to get onto the wheel of Chaves.
The relevant section of the stage starts with 1.8km remaining; or at 27:30 in the clip below.
And the attack by Roche that led to the questionable riding by Froome can be seen at 1.7km remaining; or at 26:05 in the clip below.
Stage 9: Chasing a team mate or realistic racing to win?
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