Chris Horner won the 2013 Vuelta at the age of 41 on 15 September 2013, becoming the oldest ever Grand Tour winner.

The race spent 5 days in Galicia, then continued anticlockwise touring Spain through Castile and León, Extremadura, Andalusia, Aragon, Catalonia, La Rioja, Cantabria, and Asturias, before returning to Madrid for the finish on September 15.

The race would eventually evolve into a battle between Horner and Nibali, who was attempting to win a very rare Grand Tour Double as he had won the Giro a few months earlier.

Horner meanwhile was more of an outside contender for victory and prior to the start of this Vuelta he had more or less acknowledged this by announcing during a team meeting that he could finish top 10.

Privately however, he told his wife and friends that he could podium as he felt he was in very good form following the 2013 Tour of Utah.

[12] Leopold König would win stage eight by one second over Daniel Moreno resulting in Nicolas Roche taking over the race lead.

Only after Horner won again on stage ten and reclaimed the red jersey did he declare full team support for the American for the rest of the race.

Rodríguez and Valverde were not far behind going into this decisive stage and if Nibali and Horner were to attack one another to the breaking point, either of these two riders could be in a position to steal the race.

Horner was concerned about Nibali being considerably stronger than he was in the final sprint to the finish so his plan was to defeat him on the mountain.