If Chris Froome (Team Sky) completed some unfinished business on the Cumbre del Sol summit finish on Sunday, Esteban Chaves (Orica-Scott) was also satisfied despite narrowly missing out on a Vuelta a España stage victory.
Four seconds behind Froome at the stage 9 finish but gaining time on the rest of the field, Chaves has opened up his advantage on all his rivals apart from Froome, which is one reason to be satisfied. But as the 27-year-old Colombian pointed out, this was a much better result than in 2015 when he lost the overall lead on Cumbre del Sol to Dumoulin after fading badly and shipping nearly a minute to the leaders. Last but not least, he is in second place overall going into the rest day and has confirmed he is in top form after his difficult Tour de France.
Chaves recounted that he had thought he could catch Froome at the finish line, but despite closing the gap in the last 100 metres, there was a point when Froome had looked back and opened up the throttle again. "He showed there's a reason why he has won four Tours de France," Chaves said afterwards.
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"But for me it's a really good result, two years ago I lost time on this climb, so today is a very different story. I am more matured, more experienced, calmer and that is the important thing."
"We've kept second on the GC, we gained time on the other guys." Previously he was only 13 seconds ahead of Nicolas Roche (BMC Racing) but now the advantage has broadened to 29 seconds.
"The team has worked unbelievably strongly, as always, and my thanks to them for working so well. We've got a very young team here, only one rider over 30 and I'm very happy with how they've performed. We've had nine hard days and now it's time to rest."
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