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Vuelta Stage 20: Fabio Aru poised to win maiden Grand Tour

Tom Dumoulin dropped on penultimate climb of race; Ruben Plaza takes the stage after big solo break

Fabio Aru is poised to win the Vuelta a Espana after seizing the overall lead back from Tom Dumoulin on today’s penultimate stage thanks to a strong performance from his Astana team.

The stage itself was won by Lampre-Merida’s Ruben Plaza, who attacked from a big escape group of around 40 riders with more than 100 kilometres left.

Giant-Shimano’s Dumoulin, imperious in Wednesday’s individual time trial when he took the red jersey for the third time in the race, was just 6 seconds ahead of Aru this morning.

But with four Category 1 climbs figuring on today’s 186 kilometre stage from San Lorenzo de El Escorial ahead of a downhill run to the finish in Cercedilla, the Dutch rider’s advantage over the Sardinian never seemed likely to be enough.

So it proved as Aru dropped him on the last but one of those ascents, and Dumoulin fell to sixth on General Classification, while Katusha’s Joaquim Rodriguez goes second with Tinkoff-Saxo’s Rafal Majka third.

Aru, who was runner-up to Alberto Contador at May’s Giro d’Italia, just needs to safely complete tomorrow’s processional stage into Madrid to take the first Grand Tour win of his career.

It comes at the same age, 25, that his team mate Vincenzo Nibali – along with Contador the only man currently racing to have won all three Grand Tours – was when he won the first of those in Spain in 2010.

Nibali started this year's race but was disqualified just two days in after video showed him accepting a tow from a team car as he tried to rejoin the front group after a crash.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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Must be Mad | 8 years ago
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Quote:

Nobody seems super happy that Aru is going to win, strange that...

Aru was competing against a 1000/1 rank outsider. Even putting aside the history of his team, you cannot be surprised that people were getting behind Dumoulin

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Kadinkski | 8 years ago
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Well, I'm super happy! I've got £50 on Aru at 8/1 (thanks to GCN for the tip).

As much as people hate Astana, they had it all worked out yesterday. They were like a pack of hyenas and Dumo was a new born gazelle - fantastic teamwork (which was not something Dumo could rely on).

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lolol | 8 years ago
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Nobody seems super happy that Aru is going to win, strange that...

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Miles253 | 8 years ago
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Solo for 20 stages, bound to be tired, compare his race to the way sky controls the race, and its a miracle he lasted as he did! Kudos to him, I still feel Aru should of been penalized for the catapult

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2 Wheeled Idiot | 8 years ago
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 20  2

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paslemeilleur | 8 years ago
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Gutted for Tom Dumoulin. A fantastic talent.

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Phil H | 8 years ago
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Just think what Dumoulin could do with a team around him. He did virtually the whole race solo.

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