Fränk Schleck (Trek Factory Racing) emerged from the wilderness to claim his first victory in over four years on stage 16 of the Vuelta a España, but his achievement will inevitably be overshadowed by the battle that took place ten minutes behind him on the road. On the viciously steep slopes of the Alto Ermita de Alba, Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) did just enough to divest Fabio Aru (Astana) of the red jersey by a solitary second, but both men will be concerned by how Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) managed to keep his hopes of final overall victory alive.
The final three kilometres of the last of the day’s seven categorised climbs featured slopes that touched 30%, and the overall contenders seemed to spend much of the afternoon with those gradients foremost in their thoughts, allowing Schleck and the early escapees to build up a maximum advantage of 21 minutes.
Schleck and his fellow survivor Rodolfo Torres (Colombia) still had ten minutes in hand by the time they reached the base of the final climb, where the Luxembourger would eventually inch clear 1,500 metres from the summit, though by that point, the forcing of the Astana and Tinkoff-Saxo squads had reduced the red jersey group to just 15 or so riders.
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After Pawel Poljanski’s impressive cameo at the bottom in the service of Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo), Mikel Landa (Astana) took over as the gradient stiffened. Ostensibly, the Basque’s goal was to shake Dumoulin loose, but for long stretches, his leader Aru seemed to be in just as much difficulty, though his pace did at least prevent Rodriguez from unsheathing his sword before the stinging final kilometres.
Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) were distanced as the gradient bit in earnest with two kilometres to go, but while Dumoulin finally betrayed signs of suffering within sight of the flamme rouge, he remained in touch until the final 800 metres.
At that very moment, Rodriguez sensed his opportunity, bounding clear of the red jersey group, but as the pace dropped almost to slow motion, Aru managed to battle gamely and limit his losses. He was almost within clutching distance of Rodriguez’s coattails by the summit, but eventually came home two seconds behind the Catalan, and lost his red jersey by a scant second.
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