I think most were hoping to see some sort of battle on the final TT for the GC, not that 9.7kms would have made a great difference to the finishing positions, but with Contador 1'37" ahead of Froome, the TT is a dead rubber with regards the General Classification. There is of course the stage battle to win and it should be a close battle between some top Time Triallists.
So this is it then, it could all come down to this final stage in the mountains - Contador seems to think he has enough in hand to take the overall, Froome seems to think he can still win it. This stage is quite similar to a stage in the 2012 Vuelta when Rodriguez won from Contador, Valverde, Moreno, Froome and Talansky. We're sure to see some of these feature at the finish today too.
Friday's stage could be the last big chance for the breakaway experts to try to take something from the stage with just a mountain top finish and the TT to come. If the break doesn't make it, the Cat2 climb 15km from the finish should make the final selection. It is sure to be fast and furious for the opening half of the race until the break and counter attacks settle down a little.
So after a flat stage for the sprinters on Wednesdsay we hit a stage on Thursday that is mostly flat but has a nice little stinger at the end with a double ascension of the Monte Castrove. There's barely a bump in the road for 125kms until they pass through Pontevedra and then hit the Monte Castrove for the first time. With this being the second last uphill finish of the race we should see a big battle once again!
So there are five stages left and it looks like the GC is done and dusted now with Contador's powerhouse performance today. He is now 1'36 ahead of Rodriguez and a further 3" ahead of Froome, who once again put on a show. Stage 17 sees them back on the flat roads and it looks like a day for the sprinters, the few of them that are left in the race.
The queen stage of the race unfortunately comes on a Monday when most fans are going to struggle to watch what looks like being an incredible stage. Stage 15 lived up to its billing as a potential classic with a relentless series of attacks on the last climb with Warren Barguil, Alberto Contador and Katusha the main aggressors.
A short stage, a pretty sedate stage, but one with a nasty sting in the tail on the climb up to the Cavadonga Lakes. This stage will really only become interesting you would think with about 40kms to go as they turn right in off the coast and head towards the hills. But with some 75kms along the coastline there is the possibility of echelons and splits to keep things interesting.
As Celine Dion once sang 'This is getting serious, are you thinking about you, or us?' Well it is getting serious for sure in the Vuelta - but who will we be thinking about at the top of the GC come the end of today's stage? It's sure to cause another reshuffle in the top 10 and possibly even in the red leader's jersey if Contador suddenly and unexpectedly falters.
Stage 13 takes the riders almost to the north coast of Spain and the city of Santander, but they stop short of entering the city by taking a right turn off the CA-142 and up in to the Parque de Cabárceno, where there is a nasty little climb up the hill to the park to stretch things 2.5kms from home.
Stage 12 is quite an unusual one for a Grand Tour in that it is like a large Crit race - 8 laps of a 20km circuit in a loop around the outskirts of the city of Logroño. There's a small little lump to get over at the southern point of the circuit but other than that it is a pretty flat and boring looking profile, almost certainly going to end up in a sprint finish.
After a dramatic Time Trial on stage 10 which indeed saw a major re-shuffle of the GC we move on to a tricky little stage with a hard finish to the Santuario de San Miguel de Aralar. Nairo Quintana is going to be feeling sore, Froome is looking worse by the day and Contador is going to be cock-a-hoop after a strong TT when he wrestled the red jersey off Quintana.
Stage 10 comes after the first rest day of the Vuelta, which followed the most significant stage so far in terms of the GC. The pre-race predictions were that Froome would blow away all his GC rivals in this TT, but after his performance on Sunday when he was dropped by Contador and Quintana, what can we expect?
Stage 9 takes the race in to Aragon and up to a mountain normally more famous for it's skiing, being a winter ski station. It's a long tough stage with three classified climbs to get over, increasing in difficulty as they near the finish, from a Cat 3 to a Cat 2 to a Cat 1 at the finish.
Stage 8 is back to being a sprinters stage after a few days in the hills which showed us just how well Alberto Contador and Chris Froome have recovered from their injuries, Froome in particular showed today just how much he is up for the fight, stealing 2" from Contador and co.
Stage 7 follows hot on the heels of our first summit finish to La Zubia with another summit finish after an up and down day in the 'medium mountains' north-west of Granada in the province of Jaen. A lumpy stage sees them going up and down all day but over only two categorised climbs and only a Cat 2 and 3 at that.
Stage 6 finally gives us a real chance to see how the GC favourites match up to each other, who has good legs and who hasn't as they hit the first summit finish of the Vuelta. After a dead flat opening 50km or so it suddenly rises upwards with 5 climbs to crest (three categorised) on the way to La Zubia.
Stage 5 sees them head back down to the south-east corner of Spain as they leave Priego de Córdoba and pass through the Parque Natural Sierras Subbéticas heading in a south-west direction to the finish in Ronda. Ronda is a spectacularly beautiful city, perched on the edge of a cliff, one of Spain's most important tourist destination. The city that's known as 'The cradle of Bullfighting' will see a fight on the roads today.
Stage 4 takes them further inland, in to the provence of Cordoba where they face a relatively short day in the saddle at only 164.7kms. It's dead flat for about 115kms until they hit a little speedbump in the road, the Cat 3 climb of the Alto de San Jerónimo. At the 135km mark they pass through Cordoba for the first time before going off on a 30km loop around the city.
It hasn't taken long for the Vuelta to hit the hilly roads, with only the second road stage of the race offering up a challenge to the non-climbing types. They head inland from the coastal town of Cadiz to the hills in the national park of the Sierra de Grazalema before heading back west again to the finish at Arcos de la Frontera.
There are not as many specialist markets as were available at the Tour but all the same there are a few that are worth considering. Bet365 and Paddy Power as usual are the best with offering a wider selection of markets, so let's take a look to see if any of them jump out at us as bets. I'll be updating this with bets as I see them so make sure to come back from time to time.
I'll start this off by saying that there is actually a strong possibility that Nairo Quintana could walk away from this race with all the jerseys - the winners Red Jersey, the green Jersey of the Points leader, the blue jersey of the mountains leader and the white jersey of the young riders Jersey! And if he manages that, he'll have the Combined Jersey as well of course!
Not only do we have a tremendous lineup at the very top of the betting with Froome, Quintana and Contador ready to do battle, but there are a whole host of others just below them who are ready to try to take their chance at glory. From former Tour winners to up and coming stars, one of them could seize their moment with so many doubts about some of the top favourites.
What a treat we have in store at the Vuelta this year. We get to see the showdowns that never happened this year at the Tour - Quintana Vs Froome and Contador or even just Froome Vs Contador! With only Vincenzo Nibali missing from the line-up, we are seeing, on paper at least, some of the world's best grand Tour riders go head to head for victory at the Vuelta.
23rd August to 14th September, 3,185km
Who could have forecast at the start of this year that we would have Nairo Quintana, Alberto Contador and Chris Froome lining up at the start line of this year's Vuelta. The cruel hand of fate may have denied us the Tour de France that we were looking forward to, but the Tour's loss is the Vuelta's gain!
Stage 2 sees the riders hit a Cat 3 climb inside the first 6kms, but after that it is almost entirely flat for the rest of the day and should be a stage for the sprinters to do battle, one of only five potential stages for the fast men so the pressure will be on their teams to drag back the break of the day before the finish.
The opening stage of the 2014 Vuelta a España takes place on Saturday afternoon with a Team Time Trial over 12.6kms in the town of Jerez de la Frontera. It's shouldn't create too big a time gap between all of the main contenders, but we will get our first red jersey wearer of the race, the question is, who will it be?
