Six years ago, it was the time loss on the Alto de l'Angliru that ultimately undid Chris Froome's hopes of winning the Vuelta a Espana, a race that made his name as a Grand Tour contender. This Saturday, the Team Sky rider will be hoping to cement his first overall victory at the Spanish race.
Having tried and failed to win the Vuelta four more times since then, Froome goes into the final mountain stage with all the cards to play. He has a 1:37 lead over his closest threat Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida), a solid if not totally comfortable advantage. A win on the mythic climb would be a fitting end to an overall triumph, but Froome wants to ensure that he's got the red jersey nailed down first.
"It would be amazing to win the toughest climb of this race, the Angliru but the biggest objective for us tomorrow is to keep the red jersey," Froome said after making it safely through stage 19 into Gijon.
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"I am really taking this one day at a time and counting down the kilometres until Madrid at this point. Obviously, if I can finish tomorrow still in the red jersey then that would be incredible. If the opportunity to win the stage is there then I'll go for it, but at this point I'm purely thinking about getting to Madrid in red."
It might be a while ago that Froome rode the Angliru in race conditions but the sheer savagery of it has not faded from the memory. It is five kilometres longer than the Los Machucos climb that had Froome in trouble earlier in the week, and it keeps its toughest gradients until the top. The temperature is expected to drop on Saturday and rain is forecast, adding an extra element of difficulty, if it wasn't already challenging enough.
"It's a brutal climb with gradients of over 20 per cent, sustained. It's an extremely tough climb," said Froome. "If it's going to be wet as well, it makes it even tougher as well. To stand up on the bike it is not really possible, you have to stay in the saddle and that will make it even harder tomorrow."
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