Vuelta Stage 6 - The Stage Where it Officially became better than the Tour de France

Today's Stage: Long mostly flat stage with a punchy category 3 climb at the end. In other words its Joaquin Rodriguez territory as he owns these type of stages normally.

Who won today's stage? Race leader Rodriguez (Katusha) did indeed win the stage dropping Chris Froome (Team Sky) after Froome team had helped him shed everyone else.

What matters in the GC race? The final climb at the end gave up bigger time gaps than either of the two summit finishes so far did. Along with the time bonuses, Rodriguez extended his lead over Froome to 10 seconds. Below them though, the gaps were bigger. Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff) is now 35 seconds behind Rodriguez and only six men remain within a minute of the lead.

What matters in the other competitions?

Green Jersey (Points) – John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano) of course didn't do too much today with the late climb, but he retained his points lead. GC men Rodriguez, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Froome are 2^nd-4^th.

Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains, it's blue in Spain, not red) – No changes here. Thre just weren't enough points with the two climbs only being category 3's. Simon Clarke (Orica-GreenEdge) is still the leader.

White Jersey (Allround, instead of young rider, calculated by adding the rankings in GC, Points and KoM, lowest score wins) – After stage 4, I said this is usually a GC guy in this category. I was right, at least so far. Rodriguez leads followed by Valverde, Froome, Contador and 7^th overall Nicholas Roche (Ag2r-La Mondiale).

Team Classification (top 3 times by team on each stage) – Teeam Sky's three-headed monstaer of Froome, Rigoberto Uran and Sergio Henao were all very good while the Rabobank trio of Robert Gesink, Bauke Mollema and Laurens Ten Dam were not. Sky now leads Rabobank by 1'09”.

Biggest surprise: Rodriguez and Froome dropped Contador. This is the type of finish that would seem to suit Contador along with Rodriguez. Though I would favor Rodriguez in the sprint at the end, it was a surprise that the upping of the pace by Sky dropped everyone except Rodriguez.

Biggest disappointment: It seems the legs aren't there entirely for Rabobank. Mollema was the first to be shed today. After that I was Gesink and then Ten Dam. While still in good position for high overall finishes (Gesink is 5^th, Mollema is 8^th and Ten Dam is 12^th), this was disappointing for a team that came with high hopes.

Other items of note: After a few Grand Tours where teammates never finished highly together, it has been interesting to see the rise of teams with multiple high placing again. At the Tour, there was Sky finishing 1-2 of course. Here at the Vuelta, Sky has 1^st, 4^th and 11^th. Rabobank has 5^th, 8^th and 12^th. Even Movistar has 6^th and 10^th (Valverde and a riding himself back into shape Cobo)... At the USA Pro Challenge, there is a new man in the leader's jersey. Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Sharp) finished in the same time as Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) and took the leader's jersey by virtue of a higher position on the stage. Vande Velde's teammate Tom Danielson won the stage.

What is coming tomorrow? A strange looking stage. Rolling hills but no categorized climbs (though if the Vuelta used category 4 for climbing like they do in the Tour de France, I think there would be a couple of them). With the heat and no mountains points on offer, this is a good stage for an opportunist break to go. If Degenkolb's Argos-Shimano team can't or won't chase the breakaway then it will stay away as long as there are no fringe GC men in it.

Tomorrow's Prediction: If a sprint, John Degenkolb, Ben Swift, Elia Viviani. If a breakaway, you have a better chance of hitting big on one number at the roulette wheel. No prediction.