Friday 12 September 2014 18:01, UK
Australia’s Adam Hansen escaped to a solo victory on stage 19 of the Vuelta a Espana following a late attack as Alberto Contador retained his overall lead and Chris Froome stayed second.
Hansen rode away from the peloton on a short but steep uncategorised climb 4.8km from the finish in Cangas de Morrazo and hung on to win by five seconds from runner-up John Degenkolb and third-placed Filippo Pozzato.
The general classification contenders all followed in the peloton, meaning Contador remains 1min 19sec ahead of Froome and 1min 32sec in front of third-placed Alejandro Valverde.
Hansen, who is riding in his tenth consecutive Grand Tour, said: “It’s a very tough stage and I think I would have had very high odds to win today. I wanted to do something. The steep climb meant a lot of the sprinters were annihilated, which was good for me.
“I have always been active in the final so I was hoping at the very end that I would do something. They attacked a bit earlier than I wanted and I sort of went with it.
"I thought, ‘OK, I have to give it a go’, and I gave it everything. I won a Giro stage, now a Vuelta stage, so it’s coming together and I’m very happy.”
Stage 19 took the riders on a 180.5km coastal route in north-western Spain and ended with two climbs – one of them categorised – in the final 20km and then a flat run to the finish line.
A three-man breakaway moved clear early in the day, but they were allowed a gap of only three minutes and were caught just before the first of the late ascents, the category-two Alto Monte Faro, around 20km from the finish.
Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) then moved into a solo lead with an attack at the foot of the climb and although he opened up a gap of almost 20 seconds, it proved to not be enough and he was reeled back in ahead of the final uncategorised ascent.
Team Sky’s Peter Kennaugh led the peloton up the sharp rise in the road, but it was Hansen who surged clear just shy of the summit and an uncoordinated chase behind helped him claim his first win of the season.
Stage 19 result
1 Adam Hansen (Aus) Lotto Belisol, 4:21:58
2 John Degenkolb (Ger) Giant-Shimano, +5sec
3 Filippo Pozzato (Ita), same time
4 Yannick Martinez (Fra) Europcar, st
5 Michael Matthews (Aus) Orica GreenEdge, st
6 Geoffrey Soupe (Fra) FDJ.fr, st
7 Paul Martens (Ger) Belkin, st
8 Jasper Stuyven (Bel) Trek Factory Racing, st
9 Romain Hardy (Fra) Cofidis, st
10 Damiano Caruso (Ita) Cannondale, st
General classification
1 Alberto Contador (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo, 76:00:40
2 Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky, +1:19
3 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar, +1:32
4 Joaquin Rodriguez (Spa) Katusha, +2:29
5 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana, +3:15
6 Dan Martin (Ire) Garmin-Sharp, +6:52
7 Samuel Sanchez (Spa) BMC Racing, +6:59
8 Warren Barguil (Fra) Giant-Shimano, +9:12
9 Daniel Navarro (Spa) Cofidis, +9:44
10 Damiano Caruso (Ita) Cannondale, +9:45
