Dan Martin goes into tomorrow's final stage knowing he can beat former Olympic champion Samuel Sanchez on the final overall with a good time trial (Photo: Sirotti)
Dan Martin has spent the final stages of the Vuelta a Espana tussling with former Olympic road race champion Samuel Sanchez. But while the BMC rider gained a little further on the Irish man on today's epic penultimate stage, their head-to-head goes down to the final stage time trial tomorrow.
The Irish Garmin Sharp star had started today's 185.7km stage 20 from Santo Estevo de Riba de Sil to the summit finish at Puerto de Ancares in 6th place.
He was 3:37 off Fabio Aru (Astana) in 5th, so had little or no chance of moving any higher overall.
However, Sanchez managed to distance Martin a little on the summit finish on Thursday, getting to within just seven seconds of him overall. And so the Irish man was always fight a rearguard action today.
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Awaiting the riders was a cat 1 climb to be crested at 163km, after the field had scaled a cat 2 and cat 3 earlier in the day, all followed by the Ancares mountain to the summit finish.
Contador climbing to stage and, barring major incident, overall victory on Vuelta a Espana stage 20.
At 12km long, news of its steepest sections had been well documented, with gradients of 18 per cent in places.
Both Martin and Sanchez were with what little remained of the main field by the time the race reached the base of the final ascent. And under the pressure of Team Sky, especially Ireland's Philip Deignan, the group grew very small indeed as soon as the road went up.
Deignan was the last man standing of the squad working for Chris Froome, for whom this climb was his last real chance to claw back some or all of the 1:08 he needed to take the race lead from Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo).
Showing once again that he is back to his very best and can climb better than many team leaders, Deignan piled the pressure on on the climb until Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) took it up with a bold attack over 8km from the top.
And after that, a now familiar pattern unfolded; Aru, Froome, Contador, Rodriguez and Alejandro Rodriguez (Movistar) eventually pulling away from the rest, before the pressure of Froome saw that quintet split to leave himself and race leader Contador out front.
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Philip Deignan put in another fantastic ride today, showing he can climb better than most team leaders when the pressure is really on.
But while Froome had dropped Contador on the last mountain stage, on Thursday; this time the Spaniard matched his every move. And when he attacked him close to the top he got a decent gap and went on to win the stage by 16 seconds, Valverde best of the rest a further 41 seconds down.
Sanchez would eventually come home in 8th place, some 2:58 down. And while Martin lost contact with the leaders with a huge chunk of the climb remaining, he held his shape very well and relinquished just 24 seconds to his general classification rival.
It meant Martin slipped one spot to 7th overall, now 17 seconds down on Spaniard Sanchez.
With just tomorrow's 9.7km time trial in Santiago de Compostela to come, it is likely Martin will remain in 7th but he will nonetheless push as hard as he can to get that one placing back.
Either way, he will emerge from the race without a coveted stage win, but having put together a great ride over three weeks that has seen better racing by bigger names than at the Tour or Giro before it this year.
Stage 20: Santo Estevo de Riba de Sil - Puerto de Ancares 185.7km
1 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo 5:11:43
2 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 0:00:16
3 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:57
4 Joaquím Rodríguez Oliver (Spa) Team Katusha 0:01:18
5 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:01:21
6 Warren Barguil (Fra) Team Giant-Shimano 0:02:51
7 Giampaolo Caruso (Ita) Team Katusha 0:02:55
8 Samuel Sánchez Gonzalez (Spa) BMC Racing Team 0:02:58
9 Daniel Navarro Garcia (Spa) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:03:15
10 Damiano Caruso (Ita) Cannondale 0:03:20
11 Daniel Martin (Irl) Garmin Sharp 0:03:22
12 Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Team Katusha 0:03:26
13 Jesus Hernandez Blazquez (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo 0:03:51
14 Dominik Nerz (Ger) BMC Racing Team 0:05:21
15 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Belkin Pro Cycling Team
45 Philip Deignan (Irl) Team Sky 0:15:16
General Classification
1 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo 81:12:13
2 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 0:01:37
3 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Movistar Team 0:02:35
4 Joaquím Rodríguez Oliver (Spa) Team Katusha 0:03:57
5 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:04:46
6 Samuel Sánchez Gonzalez (Spa) BMC Racing Team 0:10:07
7 Daniel Martin (Irl) Garmin Sharp 0:10:24
8 Warren Barguil (Fra) Team Giant-Shimano 0:12:13
9 Daniel Navarro Garcia (Spa) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:13:09
10 Damiano Caruso (Ita) Cannondale 0:13:15
11 Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Team Katusha 0:16:25
12 Mikel Nieve Ituralde (Spa) Team Sky 0:19:59
13 Romain Sicard (Fra) Team Europcar 0:24:29
14 Giampaolo Caruso (Ita) Team Katusha 0:25:00
15 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Belkin Pro Cycling Team 0:25:36
39 Philip Deignan (Irl) Team Sky 1:48:42
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