Stage 14 began in Baga and ended on the Collada de la Gallina after 155.7 km of racing. A five-man breakaway went early and included Daniele Ratto of Cannondale, Steve Chainel (AG2R La Mondiale), Graeme Brown, Luis León Sánchez (Belkin) and Philippe Gilbert of BMC.

A split came on the second climb when Ratto went clear on the Coll de Ordino, gaining time on everyone and arriving at the base of the final 7.2km climb of the Collada de la Gallina with nine minutes in hand. The 23-year old Italian took a solo victory atop the Andorran climb while the GC battle roared on behind him.

“This was a horrendous day. It was so cold and freezing on the descent after the first climb. I wore every bit of clothing I own but I was still cold. Luckily I have a fantastic team. Gregory Rast was amazing. I was dropped on the descent and he brought me back to the group.”

Horner continued his praise of solid teamwork from Radioshack Leopard Trek: “After Rast there was Kiserlovski. I can’t even describe how great he was today, he was simply amazing. He destroyed everyone on the last climb, leaving just me and Nibali. It made my decision easy after that – just go 100% for the line to see if I could get rid of Nibali. It was just the two of us. I tried as hard as I could to get rid of him but he’s good.” 

Horner led Nibali up the final climb before the race leader slipped ahead in the closing meters to claim second place at almost four minutes behind winner Ratto. Chris Horner was two seconds behind Nibali in third, with fourth going to Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) at another 16-seconds behind.

The conditions on the road were dismal with freezing raining coming down and slippery roads causing chaos on the descents. Rodriguez, hailing from the region, put his Katusha team on the front to drive the pace.

”You could tell Katusha really knew the climb and on the descents; they were going full gas. For everyone else it was just survival on the descent. I don’t know the descent and we were going 100 kph so you just had to hope Katusha knew what they were doing. You cross your fingers and hope for the best,” Horner said to the RSLT’s website.

With many GC riders in trouble or out of the race completely, Chris moved into second place at 50-seconds behind Nibali.

“I heard that Basso, Luis León Sánchez and teammate Haimar Zubeldia dropped out with hypothermia and I can understand that completely. I could barely hold the bike straight on the descent because I was shaking so much. It was difficult to work my fingers on the brakes and difficult to slow the bike down. The metal manhole covers at the apex of every corner were causing people to slip and slide all over the place.”

Horner moves to second place left Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) in third at 1:42.

Tomorrow’s stage is more of the same with weather again expected to play a role in the racing action. The stage is a long one at 24.9km, beginning in Andorra and ending on the Peyragudes. Chris Horner hopes to have more in the tank to take the battle to Vincenzo Nibali once again: “I tried everything I could to get rid of him – he’s super strong. I hope it’s dry tomorrow.”