"We took one big day and did a lot of work to get to the end of it. Now we have dinner and that's all that is left."

Those were the words of Astana's Andrey Zeits after stage fourteen at the Vuelta a España. Zeits and his teammates pulled the peloton across a long stretch of Spanish territory, some of it in the mountains, some of it in the river valleys of the north.

The day's breakaway survived into the foggy finish atop the Fuente del Chivo, but behind Astana Pro Team set a pace unbeatable to claim victims in the chase for General Classification time. Zeits finished his work in the flat alongside Alessandro Vanotti and then Luis Leon Sanchez, Dario Cataldo, Diego Rosa and finally Mikel Landa all went to the front of the group of leaders and rode until only Fabio Aru was left.

Aru immediately attacked to distance his competitors, and with more than 2k to the finish he settled in to pedal across the foggy peaks to gain an advantage on time trialist Tom Dumoulin of the Netherlands, who today lost 19 seconds to Aru's late-mountain strength.

"I attacked with three kilometers to go but then I saw that Quintana was with me and then Purito came back too. I was not surprised because they are great champions," he said. "The idea when I attacked was to make the race tougher because Tom Dumoulin is still there and he's excellent in time trials. We have two hard stages ahed of us and there will me more opportunities to attack him.

"I don't know how much time  will be needed to beat him. The time trial comes in the third week of a grand Tour and it can make a difference. Every stage is important. There are fewer stages left and that's why we wanted to make a point".

Sunday offers another uphill finish - this one very very steep in the final 3 of 12k.