Two years ago John Degenkolb (Giant-Shimano) announced his arrival on the World Stage by winning five stages in the 2012 Vuelta a España. Today he claimed a sixth in superb fashion, storming clear of the rest of the leading bunch to win with ease. Degenkolb handled the climbs comfortably, keeping himself towards the front of the peloton at all times, unwilling to risk being caught on the wrong side of a split. The German appeared to be one of the few riders to reach the end of the stage with enough spare energy to even attempt a sprint, and was by far the fastest of those who did.
It was another punishingly hot day in southern Spain, and a combination of heat and hills had whittled the peloton down to around sixty riders as they approached the finish in Córdoba. The last attackers had been caught 9km from the finish, which caused the pace to drop for the first time in more than 50km. Orica GreenEDGE set an easy pace on the front of the peloton, but with so few riders remaining, no team was willing to commit their limited numbers to drive the peloton to the line from that distance. The absence of attacks, despite that easy pace, was testament to how exhausting the day had been. The lull was finally lifted inside the final 2km when Adam Hansen (Lotto Belisol) launched an attack, but it proved to be short-lived as Degenkolb's Giant-Shimano team mates caught him under the Flamme Rouge. After 500m of jostling for position IAM Cycling's Vicente Reynes was the first to launch for the line, however Degenkolb followed his wheel then surged past to claim the win, relegating Reynes to second place, and leaving the rest floundering in his wake.
Giant-Shimano Directeur Sportif Christian Guiberteau acknowledged that getting Degenkolb over the climb with some support was the key to victory: ”That was a really big performance from John and the team to get over the climb today. We knew it would be tough but made a plan to go for it. Having Lawson and Chad together with Warren with John at the finish put us in a strong position. The whole team did a great job all day in supporting both John and Warren and it paid off.”
The days break escaped early with Francisco Javier Aramendia (Caja-Rural), Jimmy Engoulvent (Europcar), Gert Joeaar (Cofidis) and Sebastien Turgot (AG2R-La Mondiale). Their lead rapidly stretched out to more than four minutes, at which point the Orica GreenEDGE led peloton sped up to keep them in check, unwilling to risk missing out on the potential stage win.
With a little more than 60 kilometres of the stage remaining the gap, which had been hovering around the 2:00 mark, started to decline rapidly, as first OGE, then Team Sky and Movistar raised the pace behind. With the two main climbs still to come they were clearly intent on putting the peloton under pressure. On the Alto de San Jerónimo, Amets Txurukka attacked as the last members of the break were being reeled in, Engoulvent was able to follow but the rest of the break was swallowed by the peloton behind.
There were some splits over the top of the climb, and more on the descent, which left various groups chasing back onto the peloton ahead of the Alto del Catorce por Ciento, where Movistar once again used the climb to stretch the peloton, permanently dislodging the majority of the sprinters, and setting up one of their own for an attack near the top. Txurruka and Engoulvent had been caught when Winner Anacona (Lampre-Merida) and Adam Yates attacked, followed by Romain Sicard (Europcar), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Damiano Caruso (Cannondale). Sicard and Valverde were able to join Anacona and Yates at the front, but Caruso was caught by the pursuing peloton, which had been stung into action by Valverde's attack.
The four leaders worked hard on the plateau atop the climb, trying to establish a significant advantage over the chasing group. That chase continued on the descent, where four became three when the unfortunate Sicard suffered a puncture. However that puncture made little difference to their fortunes, there were simply too many riders chasing behind, as several teams, Katusha and OGE chief among them, were unwilling to let the attackers stay clear. Once the race reached the flat those numbers mattered and the break was swiftly nullified, prompting a quiet spell and all but ensuring the race would end in a sprint, and a day to remember for Degenkolb:
"It was like riding in a sauna today, it was impossible to get enough drink and ice. The team were great firstly before the climb in helping with this then after in positioning me and chasing the attacks. Birthday boy Chad especially did a fabulous job and it's nice to make him a birthday present. It's a long time since my last win, I counted last night and I think it I have 13 second places since winning Gent Wevelgem so it's a big relief to be back winning."