Tuesday 30 August 2016 15:12, UK
Nairo Quintana leads the Vuelta a Espana after making an excellent start, but not all of his fellow favourites have fared so well.
Quintana is 57 seconds ahead of second-placed Alejandro Valverde and 58 seconds in front of third-placed Chris Froome as the race pauses for its first rest day.
Here, we rate the leading contenders out of 10…
Quintana has ridden so immaculately at the Vuelta so far that the only criticism you can level at him is why wasn't he in this form at the Tour de France? He has kept out of trouble on the flat and been ruthless in the mountains, dropping all of his rivals with scintillating attacks on both stage eight and stage 10.
Rating: 9/10
Froome made a promising start by gaining time on Quintana and Alberto Contador on the race's first summit finish, on stage three, but since then he has suffered losses to Quintana of 33 seconds on stage eight and 31 seconds on stage 10. He will need to improve if he is to win the Vuelta for the first time.
Rating: 7/10
Contador got off to a terrible start when he lost 52 seconds to Froome and Quintana in stage one's team time trial and then another 28 seconds to Froome on stage three. Although he gained time back on Froome on stage eight, he made a major mistake on stage 10 by attempting to follow Quintana's attacks and ended up sustaining heavy losses, leaving his hopes of overall victory in tatters. A crash on stage seven compounded what was a nightmare opening week.
Rating: 5/10
The 36-year-old Spaniard is working as super-domestique to Quintana but is riding so well that he has finished alongside Froome on all of the summit finishes so far and is firmly in the hunt for a place on the podium.
Rating: 8/10
Chaves was expected to challenge for a place on the podium - if not for overall victory - after finishing second at May's Giro d'Italia, but the Colombian has been well short of the required climbing standard so far and needs to make drastic improvements if he is to trouble Quintana, Froome and Valverde.
Rating: 6/10
