Let’s get right to it. The Alto de Capileira is located in the mountainous La Alpujarra area: 18.7km with an average gradient of a modest 5% only because the middle 5km are virtually flat. Otherwise it’s more in the neighborhood of 6% with a max of 14% in the penultimate kilometer (though I walked it and it certainly didn’t feel like it was that steep).
The 5 man break of Jerome Cousin, Bert-Jan Lindeman, Ilia Koshevoy, Carlos Quintera, and Amets Txurruka as seen from a higher switchback.
They had enjoyed a generous lead all day, reaching over 9 minutes, but the gap had quickly tumbled to under 4 minutes at the base if the climb.
Astana and Movistar pulling the chase.
The break!
The chase!
Cousin attacked with about 7km to go and had a small gap.
Koshevoy, Txurruka, Lindeman, and Quintera.
Just a quick couple of minutes later, Luis Leon Sanchez swung around the corner, towing the race favorites with him, including Valverde, Quintana, Dumoulin, Chaves, and Dan Martin.
Lawson Craddock trying to catch the chasers.
Montaguti, Nocentini, and Duque.
Andrey Amador and Sergio Paulinho were so relaxed that in the midst of their chat, Amador greeted me.
Puccio.
Hardy.
Van Der Sande.
De Gendt.
Villella, Thomas, and Gonçalves.
Rolland.
A group including Peter Velits, Drucker, Dombrowski, and Hansen.
De Kort, Aregger, and Smukulis.
Machado.
Huge gaps had opened up between the various chase groups.
The grupetto finally about to hit the last third of the climb.
Terpstra.
Fraile and Keukeleire.
Fröhlinger.
The grupetto.
Ben King, Warbasse, and Gerrans in the second row.
Other than finishing, there was not a care in the world for riders like Degenkolb on a day like today.
Bouhanni was just off the back.
Isaychev was a long way back.
But Valerio Conti was even further back as the day’s lantern rouge. Give the man credit for waving off spectators who tried to give him pushes.
Just a few kilometers and several switchbacks up the road, Lotto Jumbo’s Lindeman took the stage win: a first grand tour win for both the Dutchman and the team under this name.