The 19th stage of this years Vuelta Espana started in Avila and finished on the Alto Abantos, didn’t disappoint either the spectators and cycling fans. Attacks from the very first meter and failures on the final climb, with Cadel Evans (Predictor-Lotto) as one of the main riders who suffered, as the Australian rider lost a little more than a minute  and lost his second spot in the general classification. At the finish, the victory was fought out between four riders: Samuel Sánchez overcame over a brave Dani Moreno (Relax-GAM) while Sastre and Menchov (Rabobank) crossed the line practically side-by-side. Behind them, Efimkin and Evans tried to minimize their losses. The Australian rider suffered through several crises and finally gave up second place to Sastre, although he did save the third spot by only 12 seconds over Samuel Sánchez. The time trial at Collado Villalba maintains the excitement of the fight for the awards podium in Madrid, although Menchov’s overall victory is now beyond all doubt.

The Rabobank team knows in its heart that the overall victory for Denis Menchov in the 2007 Vuelta is now assured. Former pro rider Erik Breukink, now one of the sports directors  for the Dutch team, said: "Things are the way they are and the mere idea that Denis Menchov might lose the Vuelta in a time trial like the one at Collado Villalba is very strange. The truth is the last two days were in fact very dangerous, days where you could lose it all, but tactically we always tried to have teammates ahead of him. In addition, we had a Menchov who was feeling very strong, which always makes defending the lead easier." Breukink added in regard to the time trial: "At Abantos Denis was also able to get in position to fight for the stage victory, but he was on the defensive for the entire final climb. It wasn’t the right thing to do right after that to get right behind someone ready to sprint. Anyway, he already told me that he likes the time trial at Collado and is going to go after the stage victory there."

Team CSC's sports director Kim Andersen was satisfied with the performance of his team: "Again our tactics worked out perfect and luckily Euskaltel shared our interests. We managed to demonstrate just how strong and diverse our team is. Those of our riders, who worked the hardest yesterday, were pretty worn out today, but in stead we had a couple of fresh guys, who were ready to put up a brilliant fight. We have good reason to be proud of today's efforts. I now believe and hope that this is enough to maintain Carlos' position – I really think he deserves it."

Stage winner Samuel Sanchez was very happy with his second stage win: "I’m satisfied, even though we had another goal in mind. The idea was to win the stage with Igor Anton, but we couldn’t do it because Igor gave slipped back a few metres and in addition we had Dani Moreno, who is fast, as a rival in the lead group. But at any rate, you have to take your shot and I pulled it off. It means a lot to me to win in Abantos because the first victory for Laiseka and the Euskaltel team in a three-week race happened here. That was eight years ago and back then I was an amateur rider just over 20 years old. Coming back to win again on the same summit is nice". Nonetheless, Samuel Sánchez has his mind on the overall standings: “The thing is our goal as a team really was to climb the podium in Madrid. It’s something we’ve never done and that’s what we want. Right now I’m nine seconds behind Evans and we’ll have to wait for the Collado Villalba time trial to see how things turn out. That was our true objective in today’s stage: to get me up among the top three. We weren’t able to do that, but we did take a major step towards it. Now we’re going to see if it’s enough."

The Avila stage served to clinch virtually all the winners in the various classifications of the Vuelta, but the fight to be on the podium in Madrid as one of the top three finishers is more wide open than ever. Any review of the classifications must begin with the overall. Denis Menchov’s lead is insurmountable, standing at 3.02 minutes over Carlos Sastre. After that, everything is up in the air: Sastre has a 47 second lead over Evans, who in turn holds only a nine second advantage on Samuel Sánchez. That trio of riders, Sastre, Evans and Sanchez, will fight it out for the two spots on the podium that are still undetermined. The points category still isn’t decided, either. Daniele Bennati has 118, with Denis Menchov close behind with 115. The Russian could play his trump card in the time trial, but the Italian rider will look to play his ace in the final stage. So much excitement until the end. Victories in the combined and king of the mountain categories also look assured for Menchov, just as the overall team victory is now almost safely in the hands of Caisse d’Epargne, despite the great closing run by Euskaltel-Euskadi.