Giant-Shimano and John Degenkolb did everything right in today's hard stage of the Vuelta a Espana but in the end they were unable to control the situation. Having sprinted to second, however, Degenkolb now hopes to have secured himself the green jersey.

John Degenkolb has comforted his lead in the points classification with second place on the 19th stage of the Vuelta a España into Cangas de Morrazo. Degenkolb survived the day’s late tough second category climb but one rider slipped away in the final kilometres to take the stage honours.

Warren Barguil finished safely in the front group, after some strong pace making for Degenkolb, to maintain his eighth place overall in the race.

The 19th stage was the last opportunity for John and the team to score points for his green jersey campaign, but with two difficult second category climbs to tackle the parcours wasn’t as straight forward as some of the previous opportunities.

Nonetheless the team remained focused on the plan to ride for Degenkolb and for him to give it his all to get over the final climb in the last 20km in a good position to contest the stage and try to score as many points as possible.

After the withdrawal of Koen De Kort yesterday, the team were down to seven riders, but after the day’s breakaway had gone clear, just three riders, they set about controlling the pace behind. Once again they were left to do the lion’s share of the workload but they kept the gap pegged at a safe distance and started to reel them in over the course of the second half of the stage.

Other teams started to get involved as the final climb neared and with just over 20km to go the race was all back together, strung out going into the tight right hander into the climb. Degenkolb was perfectly placed just behind Sky who were setting the pace on the ascent and by the top he was still sitting in the front five or six wheels of what was a much thinned down front group.

A few attacks came and went but it was the move from Adam Hansen (Lotto-Belisol) with five kilometres to go that broke the elastic. He pulled out an advantage that the team couldn’t bring back, with firstly Tobias Ludvigsson pulling hard and then Barguil also helping with the pace making on the front of the bunch.

Hansen held on to a five second advantage at the finish, while behind Degenkolb took the sprint for second place, taking the 20 points that goes with it to give him a 39 point advantage going into the final weekend.

Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) sits in second and if he places highly on both stages he is still capable of over-taking Degenkolb, but Degenkolb today did what he could once again to extend his advantage where possible.

Degenkolb told us after the stage: “It was a great ride by the team again. We didn’t succeed in getting the fifth win but we took responsibility well and took our opportunity and got some more important points.

“For me it was the chance to get some points. The team worked again really well for me. I had to hang on. I was fighting for position. I started the climb really good.

"I found the rhythm behind Sky. It was really perfect but it was sad that in the end, we couldn’t control it anymore. We still had three guys but there was another climb coming and I didn’t expect the climb to be that hard. I’m happy for Adam Hansen. He’s a really nice guy. He deserves this victory.

“We got a lot of respect from the bunch today as we didn’t get much help but the guys still controlled it well. Hopefully it will be enough of an advantage over Valverde to hold on to the green jersey to the end and to reward the team for their hard work.

“Tomorrow will be another hard day and I’ll do what I can to help Warren again.”

Team coach Christian Guiberteau added: “Some days it looks easy, but today it wasn’t. It was a tough day and the guys had to do a lot of it on their own. The last hill was always going to be 50/50 as to whether John would get over in the front group but he managed it really well and so did some of the other guys so they could help over the other side.

“We raced hard to control it but there were lots of attacks at the end and it made it tough to keep it together. Still, second is a good result and good for the green jersey points. It’s not wrapped up but it puts John in a strong position.

“It has been a great Vuelta for us. There’s one big mountain day left for Warren tomorrow and I hope that he can do another good ride there.”