LA VUELTA A ESPAÑA (3)

Alberto Contador effectively won his third Vuelta a Espana this afternoon. True, there is still a 9.7km time trial tomorrow evening in Santiago de Compostela to negotiate; but since he now has a lead of a minute and 37 seconds over his nearest challenger, Chris Froome, only a complete disaster (both crashing and doing so so badly that he couldn't continue) will stop him.

The Contador-Froome duel should have been the highlight of this year's Tour de France. However, both crashed out of that race and broke bones, tibia and wrist respectively, so it was postponed. That both of them could participate at all in a 3-week, 3,000 km bicycle race less than 2 months later says much about modern professional cyclists' fitness and recuperative properties, as well as their mental strength. The big question, downplayed by both of them before the start, was whether they could win.

The answer was a resounding yes. Before today's last mountain stage, which ended with a brutal 12 km hike at a gradient of more than 8% up to the Puerto de Ancares in Galicia, they led the race. The gap between them was just over a minute, a gap that could easily be made up if Froome had a good day and Contador did not. Somewhat surprisingly, most of that gap was due to the 36.7 km time trial on 2 September, where Contador took 53 seconds out of his rival in a discipline where Froome is generally held to be the better rider.

As expected, Froome's Sky team set a furious pace on the final climb, before Froome attacked with just under 8 km to go. The acceleration got rid of everyone except Contador, who stuck doggedly to his wheel. Further attacks put Contador on his limit, but each time he managed to hang on. Finally, after one last attack had been neutralised with a km or so to go, Contador counter-attacked and won the stage by 16 seconds.

A great achievement and one that goes some way to easing the pain that Froome inflicted on Contador in the 2013 Tour de France. The stage is now set for a fantastic Tour next summer, with Froome, Contador and Nibali (all past winners) expected to line up at the start. Providing, of course, that they don't crash again. This year's Giro d'Italia winner, Nairo Quintana, was leading the Vuelta when he crashed during that 2 September time trial and had to quit the race. As Nibali succinctly put it when asked if his Tour victory this year was diminished by the forced withdrawal of his two main rivals, "staying on your bike is an important part of the game". Indeed.

Walter Blotscher