Warren Barguil was seen suffering on the first climb in today's big mountain stage but ended the stage in an incredible 6th place. The Frenchman was suffering from knee pain and was on the verge of abandoning the race.

 

Warren Barguil put in a hugely impressive effort on the final mountain finish of the Vuelta a España today on the penultimate stage of the race to Puerto de Ancares.

 

Climbing amongst the GC favourites once again, Barguil eventually came across the line in sixth place to gain some time on those around him on GC ahead of tomorrow’s final time trial test.

 

Stage 20 was the final mountain test of the race, a chance to comfort Barguil's GC position, but also a chance that could turn the race upside down if things didn’t go well. There was another tough fight to get into the day’s breakaway and it took 40km for the day’s leaders to establish themselves with four riders pulling clear.

 

Barguil was suffering on the early climbs, struggling to get into the rhythm as the pace was picked up by some of the team’s of the GC leaders, but with the help of his teammates he was able to stick in the front group and recover over the other side.

 

As the race approached the final climb of the day, over 12 kilometres up uphill with gradients of up to 18%, the race was coming back together and Barguil looked like he had put his difficult period behind him.

 

On the lower slopes of the final climb the last of the day’s break was swallowed up and it was a GC battle to the line. The front group thinned down to just nine soon on the climb and Barguil had turned his race around, looking strong and following the hard pace with relative ease.

 

It wasn’t until the attacks came from Chris Froome (Sky) and race leader Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) that he dropped back, but he paced himself well over the final kilometres to finish the stage in sixth place, conceding 2’51″ to the stage winner Contador.

 

John Degenkolb also all but secured his green jersey on today’s stage as he leads Valverde (Movistar) by 25 points, with 25 points left up for grabs with tomorrow’s stage win. With his stage wins, all Degenkolb needs to do it get home safely on tomorrow’s stage to secure the classification.

 

Coach Lionel Marie said after the stage: “Warren was close to stopping today with pain in his knee but the team were great around him to keep him going.

 

“It got better during the stage and did a strong last climb to take sixth. It was a hard day but they supported each other really well and Warren took time on those around him on GC, and John is still in green.”

 

"I have had really bad knee pain since I was hit by a Cannondale car in stage 17. The osteopaths have worked well but the pain is there. Today I managed the with my own and the team's motivation. Otherwise, I would not have succeeded.

 

"I finished sixth, I remain eighth overall. It is a satisfaction because it was hard in the beginning. I suffered in the first week but I got the support that allowed me to overcome all that."