Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) has shown rising form for the Vuelta a España this August with the narrowest of overall victories in the Vuelta a Burgos, his first stage race since pulling out of the Tour de France this July.
Contador took second on the final stage, a decisive mountain 163-kilometre stage, behind Caja Rural-Seguros RGA veteran Sergio Pardilla and winning overall in Spain’s biggest stage race outside the WorldTour by a single second.
“It’s been very, very close,” Contador said afterwards. “To tell the truth I had no idea if I could win, my pulse rate was so high I stopped looking and just went for it.”
Contador captured what is - at 32 - his first ever win of his career in the Vuelta a Burgos after the battle for the overall came down to the last, and by far the hardest, climb of the five-day race, the ultra-steep six-kilometre ascent to the summit finish at Lagunas de Neila.
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Pardilla attacked a third of the way up the narrow, densely wooded climb to go clear solo with Contador sitting on second wheel in the bunch as Movistar shredded the peloton behind. Lying 31 seconds down on overnight leader Gianni Meersman (Etixx-QuickStep), Pardilla’s gap rose quickly to nearly a minute which would have netted him the race.
Contador’s looming presence in the bunch behind, meanwhile, effectively put a brakes on the chasing, and as the finish line approached, it looked as if Pardilla could take the biggest win of his career.
However, Ben Hermans (BMC Racing), another rider in the fray for the overall, attacked in the last two kilometres where the climb rose to a punishing 20 per cent, Contador followed then, when Hermans started to flail, finally launched his own move.
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