That's the thought that will be resonating through the minds of the riders today as the Vuelta has found a way of including this no doubt soon to be legendary climb from the Sierra Nevada range of mountains - the Pico de Veleta.
On the way to this climb we have two other second category climbs that look like mere speed bumps compared to the Veleta on what is for this year's race a relatively short day in terms of distance. It will bring things to a head sooner then and with Angel Madrazo taking the race lead yesterday it is no surprise to see Santander on the front in the early stages today.
In fact it is clear that they have this stage marked out as one to show a demonstration of their power as they shut down an early breakaway of 14 riders that looked for some breathing space in first 50 kilometres of the day. The list of riders who tried were: Cayetano Sarmiento Ben Curfs Benoît Vaugrenard Matej Mugerli Thomas De Gendt Sebastian Lang Jakub Danacik Lars Ytting Bak Michael Faerk Christensen Steven Kruijswijk Thomas Frei Santiago Perez Fernandez Ciaran Kelly
and Yannick Stoltz
It would have been a chance for Curfs to add to his 16 King of the Mountain points but it wasn't to be, Santander clearly want to make today selective. Vaugranard took the sprint ahead of Kruijswijk and Bak with Kruikswijk moving to 29 points and 14 points behind joint points leaders Martin Reimer and Mark Cavendish
It's a nice show of intent from two riders who showed yesterday that they are not interested in high GC positions, Solis having lost a lot of time already as he usually does on flat stages and Terciado over ten minutes back.
Terciado takes the maximum 10 points, with Solis second and Santander lead the rest of the pack over. No-one else having the energy or the inclination to go after the minor points.
The duo sit up after the climb, but as they are caught they decide to go for it again picking up two more riders deciding to chance their arm in Thomas Rohregger and Konstantin Siutsou
With just under 100km to go, Santander decide to let this rather tasty looking group of four half decent riders a bit of leeway and rest their foot soldiers. Milka continue to attack, though this time with probably their best climber they have been very active in this first week. Pendleton's meanwhile have been unusually quiet, grand tours are taking a little getting used to for the team used to striking on hilly terrian as opposed to brutal mountains.
Mountains are not in short supply in the country of Eritea and young Daniel Teklehaimanot decides to bridge to the break.
It's going to be tough for the African export to live with the elite group of climbers and on the second 2nd category climb he gets dropped near the top in the scramble for King of the Mountain points. Having come through the earlier sprint point with Terciado taking the points again ahead of Solis with Rohregger third, it is time for Solis to turn the tables on the Bacardi man. This time Solis takes the climb ahead of Terciado, with both riders now tied on 18 points behind leader Mwangi Samwel on 22 KoM points.
As the leaders complete the descent we have 65km to go with the four leaders now four minutes clear with Tekliehaimont somewhere in between.
The pack is down to 93 riders with Webeffect helping Santander chase. The Giro D'Italia saw a demonstration of Emanuele Sella's climbing talent as he won no less than 5 mountain stages there. It must have been bittersweet however as he narrowly failed to take the overall title. He stunned the Spanish riders yesterday by taking the first mountain top finish, though narrowly avoided taking the leaders jersey. Sella must be eyeing up an assault on this climb.
Siutsou the best placed of the riders on GC at 4.55 takes the second sprint ahead of Terciado and Rohregger who are both more than ten minutes back.
The tension rises and so unfortunately for the spectators does the rainfall, we can sit back in the comfort of our armchairs though and watch the riders and outside observers suffer in the rain. The break exit the final town as they begin the 40+ kilometer monster climb of the Veleta.
It is difficult to work out how the riders will tackle this climb as it is so long, it never really gets that steep probably some of the steeper sections are early on. Two rider placed high on the mountains classification notice that Santander are not looking to set the pace too high too early and attack.
With the break still four minutes up the road Mwangi Samwel and Petar Panayotov are going to have to work hard to get up to the leaders. They only manage to get a few kilometers of freedom before the flag goes down in the pack behind and the big domestiques start to chase hard.
Festina and Santander have waited until the road steepens a little to try and put the hurt into the pack, they reel in Tekliehaimont, Samwel and Panayotov but more importantly they have created some telling gaps to a lot of GC favourites.
Ten kilometers out of the forty two covered the lead four's gap is down to 2.50 on this 12 man group containing five Santander riders: Madrazo, Arroyo, Tenorio, Valls and Gonzalo
Also with them is: Samwel, Iglinski, Intxausti Contador, Serpa Petar Panayotov
and Timofey Kritskiy
A huge amount of favourites have been put on the back foot here by the sudden Santander acceleration with Pearl Adidas and Webeffect scrambling their domestiques to try and pull their team leaders back up.
Sella, Gomez Marchante, Machado, Abal, Valverde, Popovoch, Denifl, Menchov, Plaza, Pedraza have all got work to do here to get back into contention.
As we come up to 15km into the climb and 27 kilometers left news improves for the chasers that Santander lose one of its number in Gonzalo.
But the power trio of Valls, Tenorio and Arroyo are tearing this thing apart as the roar past 25km to go they have reduced the gap to the four leaders (Solis, Siutsou, Terciado, Rohregger) to just a minute and they have opened up a gap of 1.30 on the chasing favourites.
The chasing favourites are panicking and they are splitting apart with a group containing Sella, Valverde, Machado, Gomez Marchante, Abal and Plaza moving clear of the other favourites.
Losing the wheels of this group is a group of six riders including Popovich, Pedraza, Menchov and Denifl.
It's getting worse for the riders behind as Serpa and Iglinski come up to help keep the pressure on.
As the break is caught with 22km to go the gap between the lead group and the Sella group is over two minutes. The pace slows dramatically, as the three team leaders Contador, Intxausti and Madrazo take stock.
The gap comes down to under a minute to the chasers who of course are not going to slow down at all. The domestiques have disappearred apart from Webeffects Rodrigues and we are down to the bare bones of Machado, Gomez Marchante, Sella, Abal and Plaza.
They are oh so close to joining up with Panayotov looking behind his shoulder for Machado. The gap of between 45 seconds and a minute though is stubbornly refusing to close.
Further back at just over two minutes Denifl, Pedraza, Popovich and Menchov are trying to organise a proper chase as they pass Webeffect domestiques.
We are over half way through the Veleta climb now and it is clear that this is going to be a real GC shake up despite the relatively low gradients most of the time. Again as the gradient rises we get another Santander acceleration as Tenorio stretches it out. It's time to kick out the trash say Santander!
Tenorio pulls Serpa, Intxausti, Iglinski, Madrazo, Contador, Arroyo and Siutsou away with him as Solis, Terciado, Valls, Rohregger, Samwel, Kritskiy and Panayotov are dropped.
Siutsou is doing well to have made this but admittedly the Belerussian is dangling off the back of this elite climbing group.
Whilst Santander can be pleased to have distanced Sella, Valverde, Machado, Gomez Marchante, Abal, etc. They do have a headache in that both Contador and Intxausti are here with a teammate each.
We go past 15 kilometers to go and seeing that Serpa is pretty much out of energy Contador decides it's time to stamp his mark on the race.
The Festina rider had a pretty good day yesterday following Sella and Madrazo home in third and this is a great chance to really confirm his podium and even overall ambitions. He is joined by Intxausti and race leader Madrazo.
With Arroyo, Tenorio, Serpa, Iglinski and Siutsou dropping off the pace, the Sella group having come around the other dropped riders are trying to accelerate back to our three leaders. The pace is being lead by Plaza who is having a better day on this more grinding climb.
With Madrazo and Intxausti just sitting on Contador's wheel the lead three are losing their advantage, Plaza is bridging the gap with the other favourites.
Under 10km to go we have a group of 16 riders coming together.
Siutsou and Terciedo are now struggling behind these 16, both seem to have cracked. Still 90 seconds behind these 16 and hoping that things stay slow for a bit are the Popovoch, Menchov, Pedraza, Denifl group that also contains Kritskiy, Valls and Panayotov.
So back to our leaders, we are in the last ten kilometers of this brutal climb and it is uncharted territory in terms of altitude. Some of the riders have pulled themselves inside out to get back up to the front, however Intxausti is still fresh enough to have a go and goes on the attack.
Tellingly no-one is going with this, Madrazo and Contador either taking a gamble or are possibly a little tired from the earlier effort. Contador is looking across at Madrazo here as he now sits on the young Spaniard's wheel.
Can Madrazo keep his cool here? His two teammates Arroyo and Tenorio are there perhaps he should be asking one of them to go to the front and give it their all?
6.5km to go and Intxausti has pulled out a gap of 44 seconds, he started the day 79 seconds down we always have to factor in the bonus so that makes 52 seconds at least. The Vesuvio man is piling on the pressure can he capture the red jersey once again?
The 15 chasers are beginning to fall back as rider after rider breaks. Along with Rohregger, Solis, Samwel and Iglinski, Jose Serpa now slips back with Abal and Plaza who did so much work in bridging up earlier on.
Under 5km to go and now one of the Santander trio begins to suffer it is Tenorio who is beginning to crack - if their was any question mark over who was the Santander leader it is being answered here.
Intxausti is no longer pulling the gap out and with Madrazo doing much of the chase work you have to credit the race leader here. The gap remains steady between 35 and 45 seconds, Madrazo is holding the red jersey realising perhaps the importance of maintaining the race lead.
Intxausti for his part though is also doing a great job in holding off the talented Madrazo who now is calling for aid with Contador and Valverde coming up to the front.
3.5km to go and as Contador stretches it out two more riders have to let go in Gomez Marchante and Arroyo.
The chasers are down to just Valverde, Contador, Madrazo, Sella and Machado it really is survival of the fittest out there.
Intxausti continues to plug away at the pedal not looking over his shoulder. Madrazo continues to make inroads, but keeps having to drop off the front to have a breather and every time he does the gap goes out again.
As we approach 2 kilometres to go and as Madrazo eases off for one of his breathers, Contador decides to try and go solo.
There is no reaction from the other chasers, they are on the limit. Contador really eats into Intxausti's advantage here and sitting just 39 seconds behind Madrazo on GC he has a good chance of siezing the red jersey.
Madrazo tries hard to lift the pace and Sella allows a few bike lengths to open up in front of him.
Intxausti leads us into the last kilometre of this climb that has seemed to last forever, the camara angle is deceptive here we have gaps of 20+ seconds between the riders behind.
Though the gap between Madrazo and Contador closes, it seems as if Madrazo doesn't know his own strength as he closes right down on a fading Contador.
As the red jersey overtakes him Contador tries hard to stay with his rival.
Intxausti still maintains that steady tempo that he has ridden for the last 9.5km since going solo and with 400m left he surely has enough on the now racing Madrazo.
He holds for a terrific victory on the Veleta - great stage win.
It's not enough for the red jersey as Madrazo who really motored up the last kilometre is timed at 8 seconds, with Contador at 19 seconds. Sella leads over Valverde and Machado at 35 seconds, these six riders clearly the big GC men in the Vuelta today.
Whilst the gaps between the lead six ended up being not that great behind the gaps are more severe as Gomez Marchante and Arroyo come in a minute and a half down.
Abal, Tenorio, Serpa and Plaza come in about two and a half minutes down. Tenorio did a lot of work for his leader early on, but found it tough at the end. Abal and Plaza both may have hoped for a top five on GC but that looks a tall order as they discovered today.
The four man Popovich, Menchov, Denifl and Pedraza group were in trouble when they lost touch with the Sella/Machado chase group. The never got back and kept being slowed having to overtake other dropped riders which included teammates Kritskiy and Siutsou. They finish between four and a half and five minutes down.
For riders who are not climbers this climb was way too tough and a lot of riders are rocking and rolling as their near the summit. This includes the green jersey of Reimer who at least doesn't have to go on the podium to recieve a prize any more. Madrazo has been up there collecting all the jerseys!
Mind you he is sharing that lead with Cavendish who is further back and in serious danger of elimination. Fortunately for him he is in the front part of the autobus as it splits two kilometres from home. Those in the second section fail to beat the time cut.
A couple of teams are badly hit by the time cut today, here is a roll call of the fallen:
Hacecký, Ma, Mouris, Kopp Van Heerden, Decouttere Matt Rowe Appollonio, Silvestre Andreas Stauff Rafaâ Chtioui Jørgensen, Reckweg, Stenersen Niels Scheunemann Freddy Johansson Kupfernagel, Gretsch Dennis Van Winden Bernaudeau, Goddaert Sven Vandousselaere Castañeda, Bennett Simas Kondrotas
Some notable TTers and sprinters in that list that will impact the next couple of days for sure.
Stage results
A brilliant stage win for Intxausti, over a calculating performance from Madrazo who finished the fastest. The front six finish within 35 seconds of each other, but gaps really opened up behind.
GC
Madrazo two runner up places on the mountain stages and decent opening day TT have placed him 50 seconds clear of Contador, 53 seconds ahead of Sella and 63 seconds ahead of Intxausti. Machado is doing well to live with teh Spanish riders and Sella, last years champion Valverde had to lean heavily on other teams work today but did stay with the favourite. His problem now though is that long TTT in couple of days time. Spanish riders take up 7th through to 11th, including Santander duo Tenorio and Arroyo. Popovich, 3rd in last years Tour de France is 16th at 9.15.
Points
One important bit of news for the Points jersey, sprinter Van Heerden missed the time cut. Bacardi and Carmuese numbers are still healthy though how much energy they will have for the chasing of the up coming breakaways remians to be seen. Madrazo has the points jersey, but with some flat stages to come may well have to surrender this one.
Mountains
With only a few very small climbs until the Pyrenees on stage 11 Madrazo and Sella will share the mountains jersey (Sella will of course wear it tomorrow). Intxausti is in third place with teammate Samwel sharing fourth with Contador. Terciado and Solis collected 18 points and both must be seen as contenders for this competition.
Youth
Madrazo leads the senior GC, so of course is ahead here. Panayotov and Kritskiy were up there but dropped back in the finale. Denifl battled with Popovich to stop a Santander 1-2-3 overtaking domestique Valls in the last 15km of that climb.
Teams
Santander really put on a show today and put five minutes into the plucky Vesuvio team today. Festina's third man Moribito finished fairly far down with teammate Dees so they lost twelve minutes to Santander and six and a half to Vesuvio today. Pearl Adidas and Webeffect of course had to commit numbers to chasing for the leaders GC position.
