It was a heck of a ride! I think he wanted to win the stage too, but didn't have enough left to outsprint Landa. Whether it was thanks to his late gels or what, Landa really took off at the end.
Interesting, that Landa. I don't think he ever won a stage in a major race, or even finished top ten, before joining Astana in 2014.
Yea...he let Landa win. No doubt in my mind about it. He let him go.
Would have looked even more suspicious than it already does if not only he solo'd back from being dropped due to a mechanical, the rest of his team couldn't make a dent in the gap so Contador burned and dropped them, pulled back the entire combined teams working together of Astana and Katusha basically by himself on a mountain and rode past them like they were standing still, dropped his nearest rival by 2 and a half minutes on the 2nd ascent of said mountain, but then also went on to win the stage.
He let Landa go. There's really no other believable explanation, and Landa only kept up because he was wheel sucking everyone else the last 50km and didn't burn himself out.
I've seen a few superhuman efforts televised via cycling in the last decade. And while fun to watch at the time...that one definitely will be featured in the Top 10 of
Better Living Through Pharmacology next issue. I'm only wondering when the abnormal blood values test will be made public.