Barring last-minute disaster, Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team) will ride into Madrid on Sunday to claim the first Vuelta a Espana victory and second Grand Tour win of his career.
For Colombia, this is the nation's first victory in the Vuelta since Lucho Herrera 29 years ago and for Movistar, Spain's only WorldTour team, the 2016 Vuelta is their first three-week tour since Quintana won the Giro d'Italia two years ago. It is also their first victory in their home Grand Tour since Alejandro Valverde in 2009.
The leader of the Vuelta since he won stage 10 to the Lagos de Covadonga, Quintana's chances of victory were seemingly severely dented by his failure to gain time on his main challenger, Chris Froome (Sky), in the race's toughest mountain stage to the Aubisque. But when he and Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) combined forces on the stage to Aramon-Formigal the very next day – and Sky suffered a stinging collective defeat – the cushion of time gained by Quintana proved enough to fend off the Briton.
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Froome's blistering time trial victory in Calp on Friday saw the Briton, previously more than three and a half minutes back, regain traction in his bid to become Britain's first ever Vuelta winner, but after Quintana steadily closed down each attack on Saturday's final ascent to Aitana, final victory in the Vuelta is now a near certainty.
"I'm very proud of having been able to beat him," Quintana said after crossing the finish line on the Aitana in tenth place, just ahead of Froome. "He's the biggest rival out there, he fought incredibly hard, and you can't let him gain a single metre on you."
Quintana sprinted to ensure he finished ahead of Froome at the finish line but offered an apology afterwards. "I'm sorry if I have offended him for what I did at the end of the stage, it was just a spur-of-the-moment action."
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