Any hope Vincenzo Nibali had of derailing Chris Froome’s steady advance towards victory in the Vuelta a España suffered a major setback Saturday when he crashed and was injured on the descent of the Cordal during stage 20.
TV imagery showed the Bahrain-Merida leader, second overall and the winner of an early stage in Andorra, trailing behind the leader's group shortly after they had crossed the summit.
It later emerged that he had crashed and had been injured on the notoriously tricky drop off the first category climb that directly precedes the Angliru. The 2010 Vuelta winner could continue, but given Nibali’s reputation of an excellent descender, it indirectly confirmed just how technical and dangerous the descent was.
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“It’s a shame for the sliding in the curve,” Nibali said in a statement released by the team. “It was raining and the road was dirty and slippery. Until then we did a great race, but then I had to defend myself on last climb. I’m glad I was able to defend my second place.”
Nibali put his team-mate Franco Pellizotti to work on the front on the lower slopes of the Angliru, but on the steepest sections of the climb, with around three kilometres to go, the Italian cracked and could not follow Froome’s pace with Team Sky.
The Bahrain-Merida rider kept a steady enough rhythm to cross the line in sixth place, paced in the final kilometre by Pelizzotti again to come home 51 seconds back on Contador. His second place on the podium was therefore intact, but any chance of toppling Froome finally evaporated.
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