A finale of almost unbearable ramps, the hellish Ermita de Alba in Quirós, after 185km with six other categorized ascents from the very start in Luarca, reduced gaps to a one-to-one without any attacks on stage 16 of the Vuelta a España. The stage was won by Frank Schleck of Trek Factory Racing.

Nairo Quintana, well protected before the last climb, finished 12th in the stage, fourth within the favourites after a late surge from Rodríguez (KAT) awarded him the race leadership with just 1 second over Aru (AST). In turn, Alejandro Valverde struggled as in previous days to the wear and tear of a long season for him, but constance and will to perform at his best kept him inside the GC top-ten: he stays in 9th spot. Quintana is now 8th, less than 4 minutes away from the lead. The Movistar Team has also closed in on Sky, now 2nd at 2'30" in the teams' classification.

La Vuelta now goes down to the outskirts of Burgos for the final rest day, before the 40km ITT on Wednesday that will most probably set things straight in the GC.

"It was a pretty tough day," Valverde told CyclingPro.net. "I knew that my body is pretty tired. It tries to give the maximum and to fight but it suffers greatly.

"If I was good, it was not a bad TT for me, but as I am not a hundred percent I will just try try to do my best. My favorite? It is Dumoulin. Aru was perhaps not as super as he was on other days but he minimized losses."