Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp) bounced back from his many disappointments when he took an emphatic solo victory on the brutally steep Camperona climb on stage 14 of the Vuelta a Espana. The Canadian was the strongest from an early breakaway and gauged his effort perfectly to pass a fading Oliver Zaugg (Tinkoff-Saxo) 100m from the line. Behind, Chris Froome (Sky) time trialed his way back from an early crisis before launching one of his trademark attacks to cross the line as the first GC rider while Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) limited his losses and defended the overall lead.

 

Ryder Hesjedal went into the Vuelta a Espana with lofty GC ambitions but it all came to nothing in the first mountain stage of the race when he lost lots of time. The Canadian changed his focus to stage wins and has been a very aggressive presence in the race ever since.

 

In stage 7, he got agonizingly close to a win but an unfortunate crash took him out on a day when he had hit the right breakaway. Today he bounced back from his many disappointments by taking a big stage win on the brutally steep Camperona climb in Asturias.

 

Hesjedal had made it into a big 23-rider group early in the stage and he made the selection when the first big climb whittled it down to just 12 riders. As only Omega Pharma-Quick Step showed any interest in bringing back the group, it quickly became apparent that the escapees would decide the stage.

 

The front group took it easy in the first half of the final climb as everybody knew that it would all come down to the final 2.7km that were simply brutally steep. With gradients of more than 20%, the climb was set to do a lot of damage and so it was important to gauge the efforts.

 

That’s what Hesjedal did to perfection. When they hit the steep section, he launched an early attack but seemed to be out of contention when a very strong Oliver Zaugg passed him with an immediate counterattack. The Swiss quickly got a big gap and as they slowly headed towards the summit, the Swiss seemed to be destined to win the stage.

 

However, Hesjedal still had something in reserve and he first managed to stabilize the gap before he upped the pace inside the final kilometre. He gradually edged closer to Zaugg and with 100m to go, he made the junction, acceleration past the Swiss who had no response. Hesjedal even had plenty of time to celebrate his second Vuelta stage win while Zaugg had to settle for second, with Imanol Erviti (Movistar) completing the podium.

 

Further down the mountain, the GC battle was on when Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) launched an early attack. Only Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) and the Katusha pair of Joaquim Rodriguez and Giampaolo Caruso could match his speed while Chris Froome was far behind and seemed to be in great trouble.

 

However, the Brit went into time trial mode and while Fabio Aru (Astana) rejoined the Contador group and the race leader made Caruso and Valverde crack by launching a fierce attack, the Brit gradually got back in contention. With 1.5km to go, he made the junction and he went straight to the front to set the pace.

 

With 1km to go, he made one of his fierce accelerations and quickly left all his rivals behind. Inside the final 500m, Rodriguez attacked and got to within a second of the Brit but at the top, Contador had lost 7 seconds to the Sky leader.

 

However, he gained 22 seconds on Valverde and so goes into stage 15 with a 42-second advantage over the Movistar rider. It’s another very tough affair that brings the riders along mostly flat roads along the coast before it all comes to an exciting conclusion on the famous climb to Lagos de Covadonga.

 

A brutal climb

After two days that were all about staying safe, the GC riders tackled the first of the three stages that are set to decide this year’s Vuelta a Espana. The 200.8km stage 14 brought the riders from Santander to a mountaintop finish on La Camperona Valle de Sabero. The first third of the stage and led to the bottom of a a category 2 climb before a flat section took them to the longest climb of this year’s race, the Puerto de San Glorio. There were no real descent after that ascent and instead the riders travelled along completely flat roads to the bottom of the final climb. Only the final 2.3km were difficult but with gradients of 20%, they were set to split the peloton to pieces.

 

Johann Tschopp (IAM) was the only non-starter as the Swiss climber had fallen ill. The 189 remaining riders took off under a perfect sunny sky but knew that there was a risk of showers late in the afternoon.

 

Degenkolb wins the sprint

As expected the race was off to a very fast start and after 10km of racing, no one had managed to get clear. 5km further up the road, the first significant break had formed when a 19-rider group with KOM leader Lluis Mas (Caja Rural) got a gap but they were brought back at the 20km mark.

 

Jose Serpa (Lampre-Merida) tried a solo break but now Giant-Shimano had taken control. The Dutch team wanted to set John Degenkolb up for the first intermediate sprint and it was mission accomplished when the German beat Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEDGE) and his teammate Ramon Sinkedam In the battle of for the points.

 

A big group

At the 40km mark, the elastic finally snapped when a big 23-rider group got clear. Jose Serpa, Przemyslaw Niemiec (both Lampre Merida), Tom Boonen, Carlos Verona (both Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Romain Sicard, Yannick Martinez (both Europcar), Ryder Hesjedal (Garmi-Sharp), Imanol Erviti (Movistar), Bart De Clercq, Adam Hansen (both Lotto Belisol), Robert Wagner (Belkin), Luke Rowe (Sky), David Arroyo, Luis Leon Sanchez (both Caja Rural), Fabio Felline (Trek), Louis Meintjes, Jaco Venter, Jacques van Rensburg (all MTN-Qhubeka), Johannes Fröhlinger (Giant-Shimano), Guillaume Levarlet (Cofidis), Sergio Paulinho, Oliver Zaugg (both Tinkoff-Saxo) and Alexandr Kolobnev (Katusha) were 47 seconds ahead after 45km of racing.

 

At the 51km mark, the group had extended its advantage to 2 minutes while Tinkoff-Saxo had taken control of the peloton. The Russian team was seemingly content with the situation and when the escapees hit the bottom of the first climb, the gap had been extended to 4.40.

 

The group splits up

At the top of the climb, Sanchez beat van Rensburg and Hansen in the battle for the points and at that point, the gap had gone up to 5.27. That seemed to be the upper limit as the peloton stabilized the situation.

 

As they neared the final climb, the escapees managed to extend their advantage to more than 6 minutes but while Michael Valgren, Daniele Bennati, Matteo Tosatto and Ivan Rovny rode on the front for Tinkoff-Saxo, the situation was relatively stable. As soon as they hit the long climb at the midpoint, Sanchez and Arroyo accelerated and only van Rensburg managed to bridge the gap.

 

A chase group is formed

The trio quickly managed to build a 30-second advantage over their nearest chasers while van Rensburg cracked. The South African fell back to the chase group in which only Kolobnev, Hansen, De Clercq, Meintjes, Erviti, Hesjedal, Zaugg, Verona and Sicard were left.

 

Martinez and Paulinho managed to rejoin that group while the peloton was losing ground. With 77km to go, they were 7.35 behind and that was the signal for Omega Pharma-Quick Step to kick into action.

 

OPQS take control

Pieter Serry and Gianluca Brambilla hit the front to set a brutal pace that made the group explode to pieces. While van Rensburg and Paulinho were dropped from the chase group, the gap started to melt away.

 

Serry blew up and instead Wout Poels started to trade pulls with Brambilla. With 71km to go, the gap was only 5.25.

 

Sanchez takes the mountains jersey

Just before the top, the chasers caught Sanchez and Arroyo but the former was still allowed to take maximum points in the KOM sprint to take over the mountains jersey. Brambilla led the peloton across the line 4.59 later.

 

Sanchez briefly gapped his companions on the descent while Boonen had now fallen back to the peloton. The classics specialist brought the gap down to 4.20 but with Hansen and Martinez doing a lot of work, the front group started to increase their advantage.

 

Boonen cracks

With 50km to go, the gap was 5 minutes and after a bit of discussion, most of the escapees were now contributing to the pace-setting. Andrey Zeits (Astana) started to work with Boonen which briefly managed to stabilize the situation but he quickly stopped his pace-setting.

 

While Kolobnev won the final intermediate sprint, Boonen was about to crack and with 30km to go, he finally gave up. Instead, Tinkoff-Saxo took over the pace-setting and while Paulinho, Chris Anker Sørensen and Jesus Hernandez rode on the front, the gap reached 6.35.

 

Martinez sets the pace

The escapees now started to save energy for the finale which meant that the gap stayed stable. In the front group launched a brief attack and was joined by Verona and Hesjedal but the group found back together.

 

Martinez did an awful lot of work and he led the group onto the climb with an advantage of 5.45. He set the pace for the first 2km and when he cracked, Hansen took over.

 

Sicard rides tempo

The Australian led the group until they hit the steep final 2.7km where Meintjes launched the first attack. Hansen, Sanchez and Verona were dropped and when Sicard started to ride tempo, Arroyo also fell off the pace.

 

Meintjes tried another short-lived attack before Sicard went back to work. However, he had no response when Hesjedal made his move.

 

Zaugg rides away

Zaugg closed the gap and sprinted past the Canadian who fell back to Kolobnev and Erviti. Meintjes rode on his own a little further back.

 

Zaug extended his advantage but Hesjedal gauged his effort well. He left his companions behind and gradually got closer to Zaugg. Inside the final kilometre, the Swiss started to fade and with 100m to go, Hesjedal sprinted past his rival.

 

Sky in control

In the peloton, Sky had taken control of the peloton and it was Rowe and Peter Kennaugh who led the peloton onto the climb. Dario Cataldo set the pace on the lower slopes and it was Kanstantsin Siutsou that led the group onto the steep section.

 

Valverde launched an immediate attack but Contador and later also Rodriguez and Caruso bridged the gap. Caruso started to ride tempo before Valverde took over.

 

Froome moves up

Aru rejoined the group while Froome was starting to move up after he had been far back. He managed to rejoin the nearest chasers Rigoberto Uran, Damiano Caruso, Warren Barguil and Sergio Pardilla just as Contador launched an attack.

 

Valverde tried to bridge the gap by blew up completely. Instead, Rodriguez made the junction and later Aru also got back.

 

Froome makes his move

Froome now time trialed his way back to the Contador group and he started to ride tempo on the front. With 1km to go, he launched his attack and even though Contador tried to respond, he had to let the Brit go.

 

In the end, Rodriguez made one of his trademark accelerations and he nearly caught Froome. Contador and Aru crossed the line 7 seconds later while Valverde follow 22 seconds further adrift.