Ezequiel Mosquera (Xacobeo-Galicia) won the twentieth stage of the Vuelta a España between San Martin de Valdeiglesias and the Bola del Mundo. The Galician climber crossed the line just one second ahead of race leader Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Doimo), who had pursued him all the way up the steep, narrow concrete surface of the climb. Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) was the next to cross the line 23 seconds behind Mosquera, ahead of the rest of the overall contenders who came in behind him one by one.
After two transitional stages the Vuelta hit the mountains once more with the massive challenge of the Bola del Mundo, just outside the capital, Madrid. With Nibali leading Mosquera by just 50 seconds at the start of the day, and with the third step of the podium very much undecided, there was everything to play for in a mano a mano struggle up the final climb.
With the final 3km a concrete-surfaced single lane, averaging more than 10%, with sections of up to 20%, there would be no hiding place for anyone.
“This means a lot for me,” said Mosquera after the stage. Until today, I was always fighting for places of honour. When you get close, it makes you fight harder or sometimes you think it may never come. Today, there were so many Gallegos and so much support for me; it really made a difference.
“To come close to winning the Vuelta is the biggest thing for a Spanish rider,” he continued. “I am very, very satisfied. Maybe I regret losing a few seconds on stages like Xorret or Jaén. Maybe I should have attacked a little sooner today, but you have to have a lot of respect for Bola del Mundo. Everyone came into the finale a little scared. You cannot live with regrets. You have just to keep fighting and look for opportunities.
“I gave everything I could,” he added. “I couldn’t give anything else. Maybe I needed one more gear. I am satisfied because I won the stage that had been escaping me so far in the Vuelta. And to finish on the podium behind Nibali is nothing to be ashamed of.”
After a nervous start, the breakaway of the day escaped inside the first 20km, as the race approached the base of the 3rd category Puerto de la Cruz Verde. The 18-rider group consisted of: Jan Bakelandts, Philippe Gilbert, Leif Hoste and Jean-Christophe Peraud (all OmegaPharma-Lotto), Ruben Plaza and David Arroyo (Caisse d’Epargne), Vincent Jerome and Johann Tschopp (Bbox Bouygues Telecom), Tony Gallopin (Cofidis), Iñigo Cuesta (Cervélo TestTeam), Gustavo Cesar (Xacobeo-Galicia), Danilo Hondo (Lampre-Farnese Vini), Kanstantsin Siutsou (HTC-Columbia), Juan Jose Oroz (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Vladimir Gusev (Katusha), Jose Vicente Toribio (Andalucia-Cajasur), Blel Kadri (AG2R-La Mondiale) and Giampaolo Cheula (Footon-Servetto).
As the group crossed the top of the climb after 31km, it led the peloton by 3’25”; it rose to 4’34” by the 58km point but with the Katusha team moving to the front it began to come down again. At the summit of the 1st category Alto del León after 63km it had reduced slightly to 3’16”.
On the largely flat 50km approach to the next climb, the 1st category Puerto de Navacerrada, it had dropped to 1’10” after work from Xacobeo-Galicia and Saxo Bank.
As the climb began, the 18 rider group began to break up. Péraud was dropped almost immediately and was quickly absorbed by the peloton; Gallopin attacked and was chased down by Plaza before the others caught up again.
Plaza attacked again and was joined by Tschopp; meanwhile Mikel Nieve and Amets Txurruka (both Euskaltel-Euskadi) attacked the peloton, just as they had done on stage 16 to the Alto de Cotobello; they were chased and joined by mountains leader David Moncoutié (Cofidis).
Plaza and Tschopp crossed the top of the climb, ahead of Kadri and Cuesta, 1’20” ahead of the Moncoutié group and 1’52 ahead of the peloton. The two riders were enveloped by a number of chasers on the descent, including Alexandr Kolobnev (Katusha) and David Lopez (Xocobeo-Galicia).
As they hit the climb Gusev, Cuestam Plaza, Kadri, Cheula and Toribio left the others behind, but with Xacobeo-Galicia and then Liquigas leading the peloton they were reeled in with 9km to go.
As the climb steepened it reduced quickly and inside 8km to go it had been reduced to around 35 riders. Nibali used his Liquigas teammates until just Roman Kreuziger was left, with Garcia on his wheel for Mosquera. With 5km to go Oscar Pujol (Cervélo TestTeam) and Txurruka attacked and were allowed to get a few metres ahead.
With 4.5km to go Schleck came to the front and accelerated, which spelled the end for both Garcia and Kreuziger. Mosquera used the sight of the Luxembourg champion to pull away from the others; soon they caught and passed Pujol and Txurruka and Mosquera left Schleck behind and continued alone.
Not panicking, Nibali slowly drew himself up to the Xacobeo-Galicia rider but, as the two of them turned onto the concrete road with 3km to go, Mosquera kicked again and pulled clear of the red jersey.
As the two riders made their way up the steep gradient, Mosquera began to open up a gap. Once again Nibali refused to panic though, holding the Spanish rider in sight as he made his way up the narrow road through the throngs of local fans.
Steadily Mosquera’s advantage began to rise, second by second; at the 2km to go banner it was up to 15 seconds but, assuming that Nibali finshed second on the stage, he needed at least 43 to take the red jersey.
By now Nibali was matching Mosquera’s pace as the Galician gritted his teeth and began to show his suffering for the first time. Under the flamme rouge with 1km to go the lead was 16 seconds but, metre-by-metre, the Italian began to edge his way closer.
On the final steep section, with gradients of 20%, Nibali clawed Mosquera back, as the Spaniard was really suffering. The Italian went to pass him by, but Mosquera managed to summon one last surge to retake the lead and win the stage.
Nibali crossed the line just behind, knowing that he’d just won his first Grand Tour he was celebrating even more than Mosquera.
Mosquera trailed Nibali by 50 seconds at the start of the stage and so the single second on the road, added to the eight gained in time bonuses (he was awarded 20 for the win, but Nibali received 12 for second), is not enough to overhaul the Italian; providing he can safely finish tomorrow’s ceremonial stage to Madrid, Nibali will win the Vuelta a España.
The group of riders behind the two leaders had shattered on the steep, narrow gradients and Rodriguez led them over to take third. Unfortunately for Rodriguez, Velits finshed just 29 seconds behind him and so the Slovakian holds on to his place on the third step of the podium.
Result stage 20
1. Ezequiel Mosquera (Spa) Xacobeo-Galicia
2. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo @ 1s
3. Joaquim Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha @ 23s
4. Fränk Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank @ 35s
5. Xavier Tondo (Spa) Cervélo TestTeam @ 39s
6. Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R-La Mondiale @ 42s
7. Mikel Nieve (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi @ 50s
8. Peter Velits (Svk) HTC-Columbia @ 52s
9. Christophe Le Mével (Fra) FDJ @ 55s
10. Rémy Di Gregorio (Fra) FDJ @ 1’00”
Standings after stage 20
1. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo
2. Ezequiel Mosquera (Spa) Xacobeo-Galicia @ 41s
3. Peter Velits (Svk) HTC-Columbia @ 3’02”
4. Joaquim Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha @ 4’20”
5. Fränk Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank @ 4’43”
6. Xavier Tondo (Spa) Cervélo TestTeam @ 4’52”
7. Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R-La Mondiale @ 5’03”
8. Carlos Sastre (Spa) Cervélo TestTeam @ 6’06”
9. Tom Danielson (USA) Garmin-Transitions @ 6’09”
10. Luis Leon Sanchez (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne @ 7’33”