Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) dealt Chris Froome (Sky) an important moral blow when he won the highly anticipated first mountains battle between the two grand tour stars. The Spaniard attack with 8km to go of the Alto de Hazallanas after a perfect acceleration by new teammate Ivan Basso and even though Froome gradually got going after a poor start, the Brit had to settle for second, losing 19 seconds to the race leader.

For months, the cycling world has been looking forward to the Vuelta a Andalucia which was expected to be the scene of the first big battle between Chris Froome and Alberto Contador. Today the highly anticipated duel finally took place and no one was left disappointed by the show.

The two titans proved to be in a class of their own after they had been involved in what almost looked like a mountain time trial up the brutally steep Alto de Hazallanas. In the end, Contador came out on top while Froome came back from a poor start but never managed to regain contact with his key rival.

Froome and Sky were poorly positioned when the peloton hit a small descent midway up the climb after the first half had been very easy. The curvy roads caused the group to split as Sergio Paulinho strung out the group and when they turned onto the narrow road that signaled the start of the final steep 8km, there were riders all over the road.

Sky and the rest of the Sky riders had missed the first group and were nowhere to be seen when Ivan Basso hit the front with a brutal acceleration. The Italian was riding so fast that only Contador, Luis Angel Mate (Cofidis), Romain Bardet (Ag2r) and Benat Intxausti (Movistar) could keep up with them.

Basso’s brutal pace was too much for Mate, Bardet and Intxausti and suddenly the two Tinkoff-Saxo riders were on their own. Basso set Contador perfectly up for his expected acceleration which came with 7km to go while the Italian dropped back after having finished his work.

Intxausti, Bardet and Mate had dropped back to a group with Peter Kennaugh (Sky), Merhawi Kudus (MTN-Qhubeka) and Rodolfo Torres (Colombia) and it was the Brit who set a hard pace. With no radios in the race, however, he was not aware that Froome was not in the group as the Brit found himself with Wilco Kelderman (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Sebastien Reichenbach (IAM) a little further back.

Contador was in a class of his own and in less than a kilometre, he was 30 seconds ahead of his nearest chasers. Meanwhile, Froome had gradually got back up to speed and while Mate, Intxausti and Torres were dropped from the Kennaugh group, the Brit managed to bridge the gap to Bardet, Kudus and Kennaugh.

Kennaugh was doing well to keep the gap stable at around 30 seconds as Intxausti also got mback to the main chasers. However, Contador made another acceleration and with 4km to go, he was 40 seconds ahead.

Kennaugh made one final push which caused Kudus and Intxausti to get dropped and from there it was left to Froome to try to get back. Bardet tried to hang onto the Brit for a little while but he soon lost contact.

From there, it was a mountain time trial between the two grand tour stars and at first it seemed that Froome had the upper hand. He quickly brought the gap down to 30 seconds but then the situation stabilized.

As they approached the top, Contador again lost a bit of momentum and when he reached the finish, his advantage had been reduced to 19 seconds. However, it was enough to take his first win of the year and extend his overall lead to 27 seconds. The two stars were in a class of their own as Bardet was third with a time loss of a massive 1.40.

Contador still faces a big test in tomorrow’s second big mountaintop finish. The 199.8km stage is mostly flat but includes a few small category 3 climbs in the first half. In the end, however, they face the 4.5km climb Alto de las Allanadas whose average gradient of more than 10% will set the scene for another big battle between Froome and Contador.

The queen stage

After the first two days for sprinters and time triallists, it was time for the climbers to come to the fore in the queen stage which brought the riders over 157.6km from Motril to the top of the brutally steep Alto Halzallanas. After a flat start, the riders tackled a category 1 and a category 2 climb before ther headed back onto flat roads in the second half. In the finale, however, they went up the 16.km climb to the finish which could be split into two halves. The first part was very easy but in the final 8km, the gradient did not drop below the 10% mark, meaning that it was a very rare challenge for the riders at this point of the season.

After the great weather for the first stages, it was slightly cooler for the queen stage as the riders took the start under a cloudy sky. The temperature was only 12 degrees but a light wind would make sure that they would enjoy a tailwind for most of the day.

A strong breakaway

Only 140 riders took the start as Bauke Mollema (Trek) had fallen ill and he decided to head home to avoid aggravating the situation. Murilo Fischer (FDJ) who hurt his knee on stage 1a didn’t take the start either.

As it is often the case in mountain stages, the stage got off to a very fast start with lots of riders being keen to join the early break. After 15km of racing, however, a strong group managed to get clear when Sylvester Szmyd (CCC), Alessandro Bazzana (Unitedhealthcare), Simon Geschke (Giant-Alpecin), Pieter Jacobs (Topsport Vlaanderen), Aleksejs Saramotins (IAM), Jeremy Roy (FDJ), Christophe Riblon (Ag2r), Marc De Maar (Roompot) and Peio Bilbao (Caja Rural) attacked. At the 17km mark, they were 20 seconds ahead and while Sebastian Mascaro (Burgos) left the race, the peloton allowed them to gain more ground.

Rubiano takes off

Jacobs beat Geschke and Riblon in the first intermediate sprint while the gap continued to grow. At the 25km mark, it was 1.40 and as they hit the bottom of the first big category 1 climb, they were 1.55 ahead.

Miguel Angel Rubiano (Colombia) decided that he would try to use the climb to bridge across and so he took off in a brave solo move. While Tinkoff-Saxo rode steadily on the front of the peloton to keep the gap stable at around 1.45, the Colombian got closer and at the 35km mark, he was only 40 seconds behind.

Rubiano makes the junction

At the 43km mark, Rubiano made the junction but the peloton was not taking any risks with this strong break, keeping the gap at 2.10. As they approached the top, Szmyd launched an attack but he was passed by Bilbao who took maximum points. The Pole was next followed by Geschke, Roy, De Maar and Rubiano.

At this point, Tinkoff-Saxo had allowed the gap to reach 2.45 but as Aleksandr Komin (Rusvelo) left the race, the Russian team started to accelerate to stabilize the situation. As they hit the category 2 climb, Saramotins lost contact with the leaders and as he later suffered a puncture, he was caught by the peloton.

More points for Bilbao

Bilbao beat Szmyd, De Maar and Geschke at the top of the climb to take a comfortable lead in the mountains classification but now Tinkoff-Saxo had brought the gap down to 1.56. A little later, the escapees contested the final intermediate sprint where Bazzana took maximum points ahead of Jacobs and Rubiano.

Inside the final 30km, Tinkoff-Saxo dropped the hammer, with Matteo Tosatto and Evgeny Petrov working hard on the front, and with 26km to go the gap was only 40 seconds. Despite, their best efforts, the escapees had no chance and after Petrov had blown up, Tosatto nearly caught them with 20km to go.

The break is caught

When the Italian swung off, Michael Valgren hit the front for Tinkoff-Saxo and he caught the break just as they turned on the Alto de Hazallanas. He maintained his fast pace and the peloton quickly exploded to pieces.

Jesus Hernandez was the next weapon in the Tinkoff-Saxo armoury and he created a further selection before Paulinho took over. Meanwhile, Mikel Nieve (Sky) suffered a puncture and had to sprint his way back to the peloton which was in one long line on a flat section of the climb. Moments later, they hit the small descent and that kicked off the final big battle.