In the third to last stage of the Giro, Simon Yates saw his pink dream pulverized by a terrible fatigue crisis that dropped him from first to over 20th place in the standings. One hundred days later in the antepenultimate stage of the Vuelta, on the endless and hard climb to the Col de la Rabassa, the British rider of Mitchelson Scott practically put a definitive mortgage on the final victory by finishing second 5” behind the winner, the Frenchman Thibaut Pinot, but quickly and convincingly detaching his most dangerous rival, Alejandro Valverde, who arrived eighth at 1'07" from the red jersey, a gap that increases by another 6 seconds considering the bonus collected by Yates, who now leads the standings with 1' 38” on the old Spanish champion. A sensational treble is looming on the Alto de la Naturlandia for English cycling, the only movement to win the three major stage races in the same season: Froome the Giro, Thomas the Tour, Yates la Vuelta.
"Never give up", Valverde declared proudly while acknowledging the heavy defeat but ready to give battle in today's last terrible stage, just 97,3 km long but with six hills and the high altitude finish at Col de la Gallina for a total difference in height to climb of about 4 thousand meters. In cycling everything is possible and nothing is taken for granted, but waiting to see the last act of the Vuelta on the grim hills that surround Andorra, yesterday's stage, which gave an increasingly determined Pinot the second victory after the one in the Lagos de Covadonga marked a crushing defeat of Movistar and of the tactics implemented which only at the beginning of the final ascent seemed to be able to bear fruit. It was when Nairo Quintana was finally released, a move that could have had two results in the plans of the powerful Spanish team: if Quintana had suddenly returned to the Condor he had seen in these parts two years ago, he could have overturn the classification in his favor in such a demanding climb; alternatively, Quintana, not in a Condor but in a gregarious format, could have been the ideal foothold if Valverde had had the strength to sprint. Plans soon fell through because it was Yates who caught up with Quintana, in front together with Kruijswick and Pinot, and not the expected Valverde, who was left in the lurch by the red jersey.
Even after a kilometer Quintana himself, due to team orders or also because his legs weren't those of the best days, let himself be slipped by the leading group that was accelerating under the push of Yates and Pinot. Nairo tried to lend a hand to Valverde but in the end both of them were running out of energy: the defeat was so complete for Movistar with Quintana that he couldn't even keep Valverde's wheels any longer, reaching the finish line tenth at 1' 49 from Pinot. For the sixth-placed Condor, the gap from Yates has now increased to over 4 minutes. Too many even to hope to be able to return to the podium area which sees the Dutch Stevan Kruijswijck, after yesterday's good performance (third at 13” from Pinot) overtake Mas and Lopez, recovering the third position in the standings at 1'58 from Yates and only 20” from Valverde's second place.
