It was the much-anticipated individual time trial stage today in the Vuelta – this is where all Sky fans were pinning their hopes on Froome to blast through the course and take red. He did one of those two things, taking the stage and clawing back over 2min on Quintana. But the Colombian is still in red with 1.21 in hand. Which sets up a mouthwatering final climbing stage tomorrow … !

Rider(s) of the race

I have four – FOUR – riders of the race today: Nairo Quintana, Chris Froome, Alberto Contador and Esteban Chaves. The top 4 in the GC. Why? Because today’s stage has set up what (hopefully) will be one of the most exciting stage battles this year tomorrow.

Bones took back much of the time that he lost on last Sunday’s stage to make his battle with Tiny Tana tantalising again, Baby Blackbird flew over the Little Kangaroo, swapping places with him in the GC. So Chaves and OBE will be targetting Contador, Froome will be targetting Quintana, Quintana will be looking to (at the least) just stay on Froome’s wheel and, hell’s bells, Contador is just going to attack everyone. Who wins tomorrow? Fans win.

(This is what tomorrow looks like …)

Stage Results

1 Chris Froome (SKY) 46:33

2 Jonathan Castroviejo (Movistar) +0:44

3 Tobias Ludvigsson (Giant-Alpecin) +1:24

4 Yves Lampaert (Etixx-QuickStep) +1:26

5 Victor Campenaerts (LottoNL-Jumbo) +1:47

GC results

1 Nairo Quintana (Movistar) 75:18:52

2 Chris Froome (SKY) +1:21

3 Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) +3:43

4 Esteban Chaves (Orica-BikeExchange) +4:54

5 Andrew Talansky (Cannondale-Drapac) +7:12

All the jerseys

Points leader: Alejandro Valverde (Movistar)

King of the Mountains leader: Kenny Elissonde (FDJ)

Combined classification leader: Nairo Quintana (Movistar)

Team classification leader: BMC

Stage’s Most Combative: Chris Froome (SKY)

For full stage review: Cycling News

Header image : Colombian fans ©GETTY/Corbis/Tim de Waele