Pierre-Roger Latour won the 20th stage of the Vuelta de Espana cycle race on Saturday on a day when Nairo Quintana virtually assured he will be crowned as the victor of the race when the final stage reaches Madrid on Sunday.
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Brit Chris Froome has slashed Nairo Quintana’s overall lead by two minutes, trailing by one minute and 21 seconds.
Three-time Vuelta victor Alberto Contador moved past Esteban Chaves into third place at nearly four minutes off Quintana’s lead.
Froome is bidding to become the first man for 38 years to win the Tour de France and Vuelta in the same season.
“We normally try for the GC guys, but today I gave it a go and it s incredible”, added Nielsen. “I left it all out on the road”, he said.
“We’ve got a way of racing and an approach and we’ll stick to that for now, and we’ll focus on the time trial”.
Heading into the stage 3mins37 behind race leader Nairo Quintana, Froome was in a different league over the 37km between Xabia and Calp, finishing 44 seconds clear of second-placed Jonathan Castroviejo. I’ll speak to my team-mates tonight and let’s see what happens.
The Vuelta continues on Thursday with a 200.6km 18th stage from Requena to Gandia, which should end in a sprint.
“He’s a great rider, and his team was at a very good level, and they always made trouble for me”.
Two stages of the three-week tour remain, but with today’s finale a mere procession around the streets of central Madrid, yesterday’s 193.2km ride from Benidorm to Alto de Aitana was key.
“Quintana, with Movistar, he has a really good team around him, so it is going to be hard to beat him”. “The important thing is that I still have good legs to defend my lead tomorrow”.
But Froome soon managed to rejoin his main challengers and the four top riders in the standings crossed the line together, three minutes and 27 seconds behind stage victor Matthias Frank.
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He will begin tomorrow’s ceremonial stage with a 1:23 advantage over the Team Sky rider, while Chaves is 13 seconds ahead of fourth placed Contador.
