Today's stage: 94 km into Madrid to complete this year's Vuelta a España
Who won today's stage? Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) got the better of the remaining sprinters to take his third stage win of the race.
What matters in the GC race? Juan Jose Cobo (Geox-TMC) finished in the front group to confirm his overall victory. Chris Froome (Team Sky) officially finishes second and Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) completes the podium in third.
What matters in the other competitions?
Green Jersey (Points, Sprinter Competition) – Bauke Mollema (Rabobank) finished ninth on the stage today to gain seven points, enough for him to overtake Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) and steal the green jersey on the final day.
Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains) – No mountains today so Daivd Moncoutie (Cofidis) confirmed his victory here yesterday. All he had to do was finish, and he did.
White Jersey (Allround) – No more other people wearing the jersey. Cobo gets to take it home as the winner of this competition over Froome and Mollema.
Biggest surprise: Surprise? On the last stage of a Grand Tour? When it's not a time trial (as often happens at the Vuelta and the Giro)? No surprises. Bunch sprint, no major time gaps. The usual. Remember that it was much the same at the Tour de France (the Giro did have a time trial in the final stage).
Biggest disappointment: The break was allowed to get away, even for a small lead of under a minute, depriving us of more Rodriguez against Mollema showdowns at the intermediate sprint points. Of course that didn't matter as Rodriguez couldn't hang with the peloton's pace and got spit out the back, losing 30 seconds and allowing Mollema to steal the Green Jersey uncontested at the finish.
Other items of note: This is the first Grand Tour victory for Cobo who had an awful season riding for the Movistar Team last year... Cobo's Geox-TMC team also handily won the team classification (computing by taking the top 3 finishers on each team on each stage) with plenty of help from fifth overal Denis Menchov and 20th overall Carlos Sastre... Cobo ultimately won the race because of time bonuses. Given in small amounts at intermediate sprint points and large amounts at the finish line, Cobo took 19 seconds in bonuses more than Froome, who was working the first two weeks for Wiggins and let Wiggins get those bonuses early. Under Tour de France rules with no time bonuses, Froome would have won the race... Defending champion Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) ultimately finished 7th. He sits wondering where everything went wrong. Of course one only needs to look at this year's ridiculously hard Giro d'Italia where Nibali finished third. Other than him, only 10th overall Mikel Nieve (Euskatel) and Menchov recovered enough from riding the Giro to place well here... We only had 31 retirements from the race this year, a low number for the Vuelta because many use it for World Championship prep and withdraw at a pre-determined point like Fabian Cancellara (Leopard-Trek) did after stage 16.
What is coming next, cycling wise here? World Road Race Championships. The Women's and Men's time trials and the Road Races. Festivities get under way in just nine days.
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