Despite his injuries and considerable doubts whether he could continue in the race this morning, Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) turned in a solid performance on one of the most difficult summit finishes of this year's Vuelta a España.
With brightly coloured bandages and tape on his leg and down his left side after a crash on stage 7, Contador was well-positioned at the foot of the decisive, steeper second segment of the Alto de La Camperona, moving onto the climb in sixth place in the main pack.
The Spaniard was then able to shadow Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and Chris Froome (Team Sky) when the duo went clear, but seemed to sit up with around 1.3 kilometres to go when Froome broke away and Quintana then passed the Briton.
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However, as Froome faded slightly, Contador massively regained momentum, and although Quintana was unreachable, the triple Vuelta winner passed Froome almost within sight of the line.
Contador, 13th on the stage, finally ceded 25 seconds to Quintana, but gained eight seconds on the Briton and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), as well as 32 seconds on Esteban Chaves (Orica-BikeExchange).
For Contador, having been apparently dropped, the turnaround was a very strong one, but his bounce-back after yesterday's crash was arguably even more remarkable.
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