A Tour-sized Chris Froome triumphs in the Calpe time trial and reopens the Vuelta, hitherto dominated by Quintana, on the eve of the penultimate stage, a mountain stage with an overall difference in altitude of over 4500 meters and the final ascent to the Alto de Aitana, 21 km with slopes in some points of over 13%. It promises another day of great cycling as this Vuelta has accustomed us from the beginning.
In just 39 km of the course, the Briton inflicted a gap of 2'16” on the Colombian who remains in the red jersey but his advantage over the Briton narrowed to 1'21”. It will be an explosive finale to a beautiful Vuelta, which until the last day saw continuous challenges between the big names in world cycling, duels that have always been lacking in the Tour and the Giro in recent years. This is also reflected in the general classification which also sees Alberto Contador in third place, far from resigned to settling for the podium area conquered in the time trial – eighth at 1'57” from Froome – to the detriment of Esteban Chaves, only 24th at 3' 13” from the winner.
The Pistolero, who hasn't won a single stage so far, could today be the protagonist of another attack like the one carried out, right from the first km of the stage which ended on top of the Aragon Formigal, an ambush that surprised Froome but not Quintana who took advantage of it to strengthen his leadership. Without that coup d'état the Vuelta would speak today, after the eiri time trial, more in favor of Froome than the Colombian. For a long time, until the arrival of the wild Froome, the Spanish Jonathan Castroviejo had set the best time. But as in the Olympic time trial, the Iberian from Movistar had to deal with the Briton who stole the bronze medal from him by a handful of seconds in Rio. In Calpe Castroviejo therefore had to settle for second place 44" behind the three-time winner of the Tour. An unfortunate time trial for another Spaniard, Samuel Sanchez, who crashed disastrously: the Bmc rider, before announcing his retirement, finished the stage anyway accusing a strong delay that had made him fall out of the top ten in which there are two Italians: Michele Scarponi who climbed to seventh place and Formolo tenth.
