Dario Cataldo of Omega Pharma-Quickstep and Thomas De Gendt of Vacansoleil escaped 40 kilometers (25 miles) into the 184-kilometer (114-mile) Stage Sixteen of the 2012 Vuelta a España and managed to stay away until the finish. Cataldo managed to slowly edge away from De Gendt in the final 1,500 meters (1640 yards) of the final climb, where the gradient hit 24 degrees.
Despite being slowed to a walking pace, Cataldo crept ahead of De Gendt and finished first by seven seconds.
Behind these two, General Classification leaders Alejandro Valverde (Movistar,) Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff,) and Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) attacked and counter-attacked all the way up the incredibly steep finish. Valverde couldn’t match the other two and lost 23 seconds.
Rodriguez and Contador kept at each other right until the final 50 meters (55 yards) when the Katusha rider put in a final dig Contador couldn’t match. Rodriguez finished two seconds ahead and gained four more seconds as a bonus for finishing third.
With only one hard mountain stage left, it seems likely that Rodriguez, Contador, and Valverde will finish 1–2–3 in General Classification, and Joaquim Rodriguez will have beaten the best Grand Tour rider of the decade.
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