Claudio Corti had warned: “The early days will be the most difficult for us, our Vuelta a Espana will start in Sierra de Cazorla.”

The Colombia-Coldeportes’ guys did not let their manager down in the sixth stage, Cordoba-Sierra de Cazorla (200 km), delivering a courageous and aggressive performance on the day that featured the second uphill finish of the Vuelta.

The winner’s name did not change from the first one though: after surrendering the lead for only one second in yesterday’s stage, Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEDGE) claimed it back in eloquent fashion, enjoying a solo win atop the Alto de Cazorla, a 4 km ascent with gradients peaking at 15%.

Five seconds behind came to the finish Daniel Martin (Cannondale-Garmin) and overnight leader Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin), but the 30-man selected group also featured Rodolfo Torres, 27th at 20 seconds.

“Today’s was another short and punchy climb, not so suited to my characteristics, and coming at the end of a hot and tough day. That’s why it was so important for me to show that I could hold on with the strongest on this finish, and this gives me a morale boost thinking of tomorrow’s stage,” Torres told just after the finishing, still catching his breath after such an intense effort.

"It was a very demanding climb. I tried to be with the group of favorites. In the end I missed a few meters in the sprint. I am happy. The team worked very well. We want to honor this race. The goal was to join the break. At first we missed it but eventually we got there."

Before Torres, another Escarabajo had been in the spotlight under the hot Andalusian sun: in fact, when five riders finally managed to defy the peloton’s resistance after 50 km at a frantic pace, Miguel Angel Rubiano did not hesitate for a second before launching himself in a difficult and spectacular chase. Upfront, Stephen Cummings (MTN-Qhubeka), Niki Terpstra (Etixx-Quickstep), Cyril Gautier (Europcar), Peter Velits (BMC) and Kristijan Durasek (Lampre-Merida) were pushing at good pace, forcing Rubiano to touch his limit, event overcoming an accident.

“I was getting closer, just a few hundredths meters away, and in a long bend to left my bike simply slipped away, and I hit the ground,” Rubiano said. “The race doctor treated my wounds, and then I got back to the chase. The guys upfront did not make my life easy: every time I was 10 seconds adrift, they would accelerate again. I came on top of it though: after 10km at full effort, I finally bridged back on them in the feed zone.

"It was war to go into the break. I tried to go for an hour and finally it went in a descent after we had passed the early stage hills. I went a little bit too late. I found myself just behind the break and then I crashed in a descent. I'm a little bit bruised but I'm used to it. Afterwards I managed to catch them and ride in the front for most of the stage."

With Gautier sitting 3.10 behind in the overall classification, the escapees were not left lots of room by the peloton led by Giant-Alpecin, and their margin was eventually reduced to under a minute inside the final 20 km. In spite of the earlier efforts, it was Rubiano who tried to go alone with 15 km to go, but it was Cummings who moved on the counterattack.

The Brit managed to stay clear until 2,5 km to go, when Esteban Chaves launched a strong attack, with nobody able to stay in his wake. The former Colombia-Coldeportes rider now leads the overall with 10 seconds on Dumoulin, while Rodolfo Torres is the best Escarabajo in 31st position, 3.43 adrift.

Even though the breakaway did not succeed, Rubiano’s determination was still rewarded with the most combative rider award:

“I am happy with this title, as I really gave everything I could in this action. But it’s not over: tomorrow I will need to recover a bit, but I am already thinking of some stages where I could give it another go.”

Tomorrow, Friday, the road keeps pointing up with the first high-mountain finish of the Vuelta a Espana: 191 km are waiting for the riders between Jodar and Alpujarra, with the 19 final kilometres to the Alto di Capileira (1st category) to test the ambitions of the top Vuelta contenders.