Stage 19 was from Piedrahita to Toledo and was the longest stage of the tour at 231.2km.
The main news was that Fabian Cancellera (pictured below) pulled out after the race had started. The Swiss rider, who has a year left on his Saxo Bank contract, is being chased by a number of teams including BMC, the Australian Pegasus team and the Schleck's new team and has yet to decide if he will ride in next month's World Championships.
This was a stage that included climbs, sprints and cobbles. There was a break which included the German Dominik Roels and three Spaniard's in Xavier Florencio, Manuel Ortega and Josep Jufre.
Their gap on the peleton was 5.15 but as the riders headed towards Toledo that got smaller and smaller.
The break was ended and Nicholas Roche was in a group of attackers going for a stage win as the peleton started to break up with 3.2km to go.
Riders were all over the cobbles and Phillippe Gilbert took the initiative and beat Tyler Farrar (pictured below), who can thank David Millar for getting him up to the front to the line to win in a time of 5hr, 43.41.
Mark Cavendish finished ten seconds down.
"It was a very technical finish," said Omega Pharma Lotto's Gilbert to Eurosport after the race. "I have to thank my team and David Millar who did a very big job for me."
The penultimate Stage 20 tomorrow is from San Martin de Valdeiglesias to Bola del Mundo and is 172.1km long.
Pictures copyright of Covsupport News Service. Credit CNS/KM