Adriano Malori (Movistar) took the biggest victory of his career when he won the final stage of the Vuelta a Espana in dominant fashion. On a day when half of the peloton was taken out of contention by wet roads in the technical time trial, the Italian was clearly the beat of the early starters and beat Jesse Sergent (Trek) and Rohan Dennis (BMC) with a comfortable margin. Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) took no risks on the wet roads and finished outside the top 100 but it was enough to seal the overall victory in the Spanish grand tour.

Adriano Malori went into the final time trial of the Vuelta a Espana as the man to beat. On a short, flat course, the Italian is one of the best time triallists in the world and he fully proved his skills when he took a comfortable victory in the short race against the clock.

However, Malori would definitely have preferred to take the win in slightly different circumstances as rain set in halfway through the stage and made the roads wet for the late starters. With several turns on the technical course, the second half of the peloton had no chance and only three riders managed to finish within a minute of the time set by Malori after the rain had set in.

That didn’t take anything away from Malori’s performance though. Having been slightly off the pace in the technical first part of the course, he dropped the hammer on the long straights in the final part to take a comfortable victory on the short 8.8km course in Santiago de Compostela.

His biggest rival was another specialist, Jesse Sergent (Trek) who covered the distance in a time that was 8 seconds slower than the one set by his Italian rival. The Kiwi had been one of the earliest starters and spent some time in the hot seat before Malori lowered the mark.

Rohan Dennis (BMC) finished third but the Australian must be wondering what might have been. Having posted the fastest time at the time check, he did the final part of the race in wet conditions and even crashed after he had crossed the line.

For the GC riders, it became a race of survival and as the stage win was no longer within reach and the time gaps being pretty big, almost everybody preferred to stay safe. With a 32nd place, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) was the best of them but he was a massive 55 seconds off Malori’s mark.

Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) preferred to stay safe on the technical course and finished outside the top 100. Even though he saw his advantage over Chris Froome (Sky) being reduced to 1.10, it was enough to secure an overall victory in the Spanish grand tour, with Froome and Valverde flanking him on the podium.

John Degenkolb (Giant-Shimano) did a great time trial to finish 20th and secure himself the win in the points competition. Luis Leon Sanchez (Caja Rural) won the mountains competition while Contador was also best in the combination classification. Katusha crowned a solid performance with a win in the teams competition.

With the Vuelta and the Canadian WorldTour races done and dusted, the focus now turns to the World Championships before the WorldTour resumes in the beginning of October with the final one-day race on the calendar, Il Lombardia.

A short, technical time trial

The Vuelta a Espana finished with a short 8.8km time trial in Santiago de Compostela. While the first part had several technical challenges, the second half was mainly made up of long, straight section that suited the real specialists.

The first rider down the ramp was Andrea Guardini (Astana) who stopped the clock in a time of 12.41. He was immediately beaten into second by Carlos Betancur (Ag2r) who went 21 seconds faster but he Colombian didn’t enjoy his lead for long. As expected, prologue specialist Jimmy Engoulvent (Europcar) was clearly the fastest of the early starters and his time of 11.30 would stand for some time.

Bewley goes close

Gert Joeaar (Cofidis) was the first to get close but when he stopped the clock, his time was only good enough for second. Robert Wagner (Belkin) made it into third before Pirmin Lang (IAM) equaled his time.

Jonathan Fumeaux (IAM) was the next riders to make it onto the provisional podium but he was relegated by Luke Rowe (Sky). Moments later, Sam Bewley (Orica-GreenEDGE) became the first rider to get close Engoulvent, stopping the clock in 11.34.

Best time for Sergent

Sergent had now hit the course and he was clearly the fastest at the first check. When he crossed the line, he had gone 10 seconds faster than Engoulvent and was now the leader of the race.

Damien Gaudin (Ag2r) made it two Frenchmen on the provisional podium while Greg Henderson (Lotto) slotted into fifth. Patrick Gretsch (Ag2r) had a decent ride to take sixth but most eyes were now on Malori.

Malori takes the lead

While Maciej Bodnar (Cannondale) slotted into third, Malori posted an intermediate time that was 2 seconds slower than Sergent’s. However, he did a very fast second half and when he crossed the line, he had been 8 seconds faster.

Vasil Kiryienka (Sky) did a very fast second half to make it into third but most had their eyes on Daniele Bennati (Tinkoff-Saxo) who had been fastest at the time check. However, the Italian faded and had to settle for 8th.

Dennis loses ground

Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) set the 7th best time while it emerged that Dennis had posted the fastest time at the intermediate check. Meanwhile, the Trek riders Jasper Stuyven and Kristof Vandewalle both finished their riders in the provisional top 10.

It had now started to rain which may have caused Dennis to slow down. When the BMC rider finished, the stage, he was only third, 9 seconds off the mark.

Rain destroys the stage

From there, the stage turned into an uneventful affair as the main focus for the final riders was to stay safe. Only 3 riders finished within a minute of Malori’s time, with Wout Poels (OPQS), Tobias Ludvigsson (Giant-Shimano) and Valverde being the best.

As the time gaps in the overall standings were mostly big, the GC riders preferred to stay safe. However, Damiano Caruso (Cannondale) and Daniel Navarro (Cofidis) both had to go full gas as they were separated by only 6 seconds. The Italian won the battle and moved into 9th in the final overall standings. Similarly, Wilco Kelderman (Belkin) managed to pass Giampaolo Caruso (Katusha) to move into 14th.

For Froome and Contador, it was all about staying safe and even though Froome was almost 30 seconds faster than the race leader, Contador could cross the line with one arm in the air to celebrate his third Vuelta victory.