Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Transitions) won the twenty-first and final stage of the Vuelta a España between San Sebastian de los Reyes and Madrid in a bunch sprint. The American fastman beat Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia) into second, consigning the Manxman to a rare defeat, with Allan Davis (Astana) third at the end of the flat 85km stage.
After yesterday’s stage to the iconic mountaintop finish at the Bola del Mundo, the final, largely ceremonial, stage was even shorter than usual. Starting in the suburbs of the Spanish capital, the race would cover just 22km before starting the twelve 6.7km laps, based on Madrid’s famous Gran Vía. The breakaway specialist could be expected to spoil the party but the sprinters were almost certain to have their day once more.
“It’s amazing!” said Farrar after his victory. “I’ve been feeling good this whole Vuelta, but to win two stages is even more than I hoped for.”
“I owe it all to Matt Wilson today,” he said. “I think I rode every circuit on his wheel; he took care of me today. My whole team worked for me. Christian and Tom [Peterson] killed themselves on the front all day!”
Just as in the final stage of the Tour de France, the early kilometres were taken at a leisurely pace with riders chatting with one another. With hostilities finished in the overall classification, and no climbs on the final stage, both the red leader’s jersey, the white and blue polka-dot mountains jersey and white combination jersey classifications were settled.
The only jersey competition still open was the green points jersey, with Cavendish leading Farrar by 12 points.
The Liquigas-Doimo team of race winner elect Vincenzo Nibali led the peloton as it entered the Spanish capital, seemingly wanting to ceremonially lead the race across the line to start the first lap of the finishing circuit.
Dominik Roels (Milram), who was been one of the most aggressive riders of the race, had other ideas though, and attacked after just 19km; 3km before the line. As he reached the finishing circuit his lead over the peloton was approaching 30 seconds, and he was joined by Javier Ramirez (Andalucia-Cajasur).
OmegaPharma-Lotto pair Jurgen Van Goolen and Olivier Kaisen attacked from the peloton behind the leading pair and made their way across. They were shortly joined by Gonzalo Rabuñal (Xacobeo-Galicia) and the five riders worked to keep the pack at bay.
Liquigas-Doimo was not bothered about any of the five breakaway riders as they were no threat whatsoever to Nibali’s lead. HTC-Columbia and Cavendish were quite happy for the quintet to snap up the points at the two intermediate sprints, so the onus fell upon the Garmin-Transitions team to keep the group within striking distance on behalf of Farrar.
As the five leaders crossed the line for the third time, for the first intermediate sprint after 33.7km, they led by 43 seconds; after 50km, at the end of the sixth lap they led by 1’08”.
With the second sprint just 12km away the HTC-Columbia joined Garmin-Transitions on the front of the peloton and the lead began to decrease. As Ramirez took the points on the line, the group was still 25 seconds ahead, and with the only points now available on he finish line the gap continued to fall.
As they crossed the line with two laps to go the five led by just 11 seconds and they were caught just a few kilometres later. With just 7km to go Garmin-Transitions, HTC-Columbia, Quick Step and Liquigas-Doimo kept the pace high to prevent any last minute attacks. This didn’t stop Greg Van Avermaet (OmegaPharma-Lotto) from trying to escape, but he was not even allowed to get a metre ahead of the peloton before he was forced to give up.
As the peloton entered the final kilometre Quick Step took the front for Wouter Weylandt, but Matt Goss (HTC-Columbia) pulled past them with Cavendish on his wheel as they entered the closing few hundred metres; it looked for all the world as though Cavendish was going to sweep past and take the victory in his usual way.
Cavendish appeared to miss-time his sprint though, launching his sprint too late, and was still accelerating as Farrar came past him at full speed to take the win. With the Manxman taking second place though, he secured enough points to hold on the points jersey by seven points over the American.
Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Doimo) wins the 2010 Vuelta, taking the first Grand Tour of his career and becoming the first Italian to win the Spanish tour since Marco Giovannetti in 1990.
Nibali also took the combination classification, awarded to the rider with the best positions in all the competitions combined, while David Moncoutié won the mountains classification for the third straight year; the team competition was won by Team Katusha.
Result stage 21
1. Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin-Transitions
2. Mark Cavendish (GBr) HTC-Columbia
3. Allan Davis (Aus) Team Astana
4. Wouter Weylandt (Bel) Quick Step
5. Matthew Goss (Aus) HTC-Columbia
6. Grega Bole (Slo) Lampre-Farnese Vini
7. Manuel Cardoso (Por) Footon Servetto
8. Samuel Dumoulin (Fra) Cofidis
9. Juan Jose Haedo (Arg) Team Saxo Bank
10. Danilo Hondo (Ger) Lampre-Farnese Vini
Final standings Vuelta a España 2010
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 @ 7’42”
Points classification (green jersey): Mark Cavendish (GBr) HTC-Columbia
Mountains classification (white/blue polka dot jersey): David Moncoutié (Fra) Cofidis
Combination classification (white jersey): Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo
Team classification: Team Katusha (Rus)