Philippe Gilbert reinforced his World Championship credentials by triumphing on the 19th stage of the Vuelta a España.
Nibali extends GC lead
Philippe Gilbert reinforced his World Championship credentials by triumphing on the 19th stage of the Vuelta a España, while Vincenzo Nibali also extended his advantage in the battle for the general classification.
Gilbert attacked his rivals with just under 500m to go on the winding, uphill drag to the finish line in Toledo, and only Tyler Farrar could muster any kind of response before the Belgian sealed a comfortable victory.
Behind, the peloton had fractured to pieces and Nibali crossed the line 12 seconds ahead of Ezequiel Mosquera (Xacobeo) in sixth position.
That result ensured the Italian now leads his closest rival by 50 seconds going into Saturday's decisive stage to Bola del Mundo.
Xavier Florencio (Cervélo), Josep Jufré (Astana), Manuel Ortega (Andalucía) and Dominik Roels (Milram) had brought the stage to life by breaking away earlier in the day, but they were hauled back with 13km to go before HTC-Columbia and Lampre led the peloton into the destination town.
It was not to be for their sprint hopes though as Gilbert proved the most powerful finisher on the day.
After the stage he told reporters: "My team-mates did really well to get me in position for that final climb. There were some attacks early on it but I decided to stay calm and put everything into the sprint.
"On the way up I saw Farrar and I knew all about the threat he posed, but thankfully it all worked out well."
Mark Cavendish meanwhile, ended the day 10 seconds behind Gilbert in 17th position and saw Farrar cut his lead at the top of the points classification to 12.
