Primoz Roglic (LottoNI-Jumbo) wins final Individual Time Trial stage six of Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco while
"I always wanted to win this race. I have been riding it for many years, and I have always been very close," Valverde said. "This leaves a very, very special taste. It was a really hard time trial. It was tight with Ion [Izagirre] and Alberto, to be honest, it was an advantage to be last off. Knowing the splits of the men who went before was important."
The day began with five riders locked on the same time as Valverde at the head of the overall standings, while Contador loomed with intent just three seconds back. Despite the tight margins at the beginning of the stage, however, it was clear by the first checkpoint that the race would be a duel between Contador and Valverde.
The 27km time trial began with the 6km ascent of the Elgeta, but Contador was the only one of the general classification contenders to use a regular road bike for the opening part of the stage before switching to his time trial machine for the sweeping descent and rolling run to the line.
The decision looked to be a sage one at the first time check. Despite losing a handful of seconds to make his bike change just shy of the summit of the climb, Contador swooped down the other side to clock the best time at the 12.7-kilometre mark, 12 seconds clear of overall threat Ion Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida) and 33 seconds ahead of the stage winner Roglic.
When the yellow jersey of Valverde came through the same point 9 seconds down on Contador, it meant that the provisional overall lead had passed onto the Trek-Segafredo man's shoulders, and as he pedalled smoothly back towards Eibar, he seemed destined to land his fifth overall win in the Basque Country.
On the back end of the course, however, Valverde began to claw back his deficit. With five kilometres to go, he had drawn level with Contador on the day and moved back into the virtual overall lead. With his two-minute man Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale-Drapac) serving as a carrot in the closing kilometres, Valverde continued to gain on Contador. He stopped the clock with the day's second best time, 9 seconds down on Roglic, but 14 ahead of Contador, who took fourth on the stage after fading in the final miles.
The result saw Valverde claim overall victory by some 17 seconds from Contador, while Izagirre took the third step on the podium, 21 seconds back. David De La Cruz (Quick-Step), who began the day in 9th, moved up to fourth overall thanks to his fifth place on the stage.
Primoz Roglic's stage win, his second of the race after he soloed to victory on Thursday's stage 4, was enough to push him up to fifth place overall, while Louis Meintjes (UAE Emirates) was the best of the men who started the day on the same time as Valverde, and the South African comes away with sixth place overall.
It was a rather lacklustre afternoon for Romain Bardet (Ag2r La Mondiale), however, as he slipped to 15th overall after losing 2:33 on the stage. Uran, an outside bet for the overall win given his time trialling pedigree, faired marginally better, though dropping from second to ninth overall can only be viewed as a disappointment for the Colombian.
One of the day's most eye-catching performances, meanwhile, was delivered by Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb), who spent some time in the hot seat and finished the day in 6th place on the stage. A stage winner earlier in the race, the Australian has marked himself out as one of the favourites for next week's Amstel Gold Race.
Valverde emerged as the day's biggest winner, however. He has made a remarkable start to the 2017 campaign, having already won the Vuelta a Andalucía and the Volta a Catalunya. Valverde had never won the Tour of the Basque Country, though he placed second all the way back in 2006 behind José Ángel Gómez Marchante.
Valverde also stood on the second step of the podium in 2010, but was later stripped of the result when he was handed a retroactive two-year ban for blood doping following his implication in Operacion Puerto. He returned to the professional peloton in 2012 seemingly without missing a beat and has enjoyed some of the best results of his career in the intervening period, including podium finishes at the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia. He seems on another level again in 2017.
"Even I'm surprised at how the season is going," Valverde said. "Every year I always say at this point that it was my best start, but in this case, yes, there can be no doubt: It's my best start ever."
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