These are the individual stages of the 2008 Vuelta a España, with Stage 1 on 30 August and Stage 11 on 10 September.
Stages
Stage 1 30 August 2008 – Granada, 7 km (TTT)
The 2008 Vuelta began with a short team time trial over a perfectly flat course in the city of Granada.
The Italian team was the unexpected winner of the team time trial. They finished in 8' 21", more than ten seconds clear of the supposed favorites and . also finished well; the Basques were eight seconds back of Liquigas at the end, for second place, despite having the best time at the intermediate time check. Filippo Pozzato donned the first golden jersey at the head of the General classification.
Stage 1 result TeamTime1 8' 21"2 + 8"3 + 9"4 + 10"5 + 11"6 Tinkoff Credit Systems + 12"7 + 13"8 + 14"9 + 15"10 Gerolsteiner + 18"General classification after Stage 1 RiderTeamTime 1 8' 21" 2 + 0" 3 + 0" 4 + 0" 5 + 0" 6 + 0" 7 + 0" 8 + 8" 9 + 8" 10 + 8"
Stage 2 31 August 2008 – Granada to Jaén, 167 km
The first regular stage of the Vuelta included its first climb, the third category hill at Las Encebras, and featured a 25 kilometer circuit in the city of Jaén before the finish. The cyclists took two laps of this circuit before the final finishing line. It was thought that it would ensure a sprint finish.
Just as he had in the Tour de France earlier in the season, Alejandro Valverde won the first regular stage of the Vuelta. The successful breakaway of the day involved Jesús Rosendo, Egoi Martínez, Cyril Lemoine, and Mikhail Ignatiev. They held a maximum advantage of 4' 30" on the main field, but were caught 20 kilometers before the finish. Valverde's Caisse d'Epargne teammates successfully cracked the main field on the way into Jaén, launching attacks that kept anyone but Valverde going clear, as he did, with a 2-second advantage on the field. Thanks to that and time bonuses at the line, Valverde took the overall lead in the race.
Stage 2 results RiderTeamTime 1 4h 23' 00" 2 Gerolsteiner + 2" 3 s.t. 4 s.t. 5 s.t. 6 s.t. 7 s.t. 8 s.t. 9 s.t. 10 s.t.General classification after Stage 2 RiderTeamTime 1 4h 31' 10" 2 + 13" 3 + 13" 4 + 15" 5 + 19" 6 Gerolsteiner + 19" 7 + 20" 8 + 21" 9 + 21" 10 + 21"
Stage 3 1 September 2008 – Jaén to Córdoba, 168 km
This stage was gently undulating until the third category climb up San Jerónimo, which began 26 kilometers from the finish line. It was thought that this might break up the field and keep a mass sprint from happening, which partially came true.
Andalucía-Cajasur rider Manuel Ortega broke away from the main field almost immediately after the official start of the stage. Alone, he held a maximum advantage of over 15 minutes before the pack, paced by the race leader's team Caisse d'Epargne, began to draw him back. Their pace was extremely lax, slower than the slowest predicted team by the Vuelta's organizers, but eventually they did begin to reel Ortega in. Liquigas later came forward to set a faster pace, one that cracked about a third of the field on the way up the Alto de San Jerónimo climb. A breakaway led by Paolo Bettini caught Ortega with 17 kilometers to go, but Bettini's breakaway itself was caught 4 kilometers in front of the line. A bunched sprint saw Tom Boonen win the stage. With bonus seconds won for second place at the line and in intermediate sprints, Daniele Bennati became the third golden jersey wearer in as many days.
Stage 3 results RiderTeamTime 1 4h 25' 24" 2 s.t. 3 s.t. 4 s.t. 5 Crédit Agricole s.t. 6 s.t. 7 s.t. 8 Crédit Agricole s.t. 9 Gerolsteiner s.t. 10 s.t.General classification after Stage 3 RiderTeamTime 1 8h 56' 21" 2 + 7" 3 + 10" 4 + 20" 5 + 22" 6 Gerolsteiner + 26" 7 + 26" 8 + 27" 9 + 27" 10 + 28"
Stage 4 2 September 2008 – Córdoba to Puertollano, 170 km
This stage saw the riders leave the autonomous community of Andalusia and enter Castile-La Mancha. There were two third-category climbs along the way, but the final 60 kilometers were almost perfectly flat, and a bunched sprint finish was expected.
An Andalucía-Cajasur rider again launched a solo attack that kept him out in front of the field for most of the day. For this stage, that rider was José Antonio López, who broke away at the 9 kilometer mark and attained a maximum advantage of 8' 06" as the bunch took it easy for the first two and a half hours before finally increasing their speed. The field was paced by the race leader's team Liquigas as well as the team of the man who won the stage the previous day and poised to do so again, Tom Boonen's Quick Step mates. López held on as long as he could, and was caught at the 8 kilometers to go mark. Another classic sprint finish saw the stage victory go to race leader Daniele Bennati. A crash at the 3 kilometers to go mark fractured the field and limited the riders who could contest the finish to those already at the front of the pack. While a crash within the final 3 kilometers normally affords everyone involved the same finishing time as the one attained by the group they were in upon crashing, race officials later declared that this crash took place just outside 3 kilometers from the line, and all time lost by those involved would stand as time lost.
Stage 4 results RiderTeamTime 1 4h 27' 54" 2 s.t. 3 s.t. 4 s.t. 5 s.t. 6 s.t. 7 s.t. 8 s.t. 9 Crédit Agricole + 3" 10 s.t.General classification after Stage 4 RiderTeamTime 1 13h 23' 57" 2 + 22" 3 + 48" 4 + 51" 5 + 59" 6 + 1' 01" 7 + 1' 02" 8 + 1' 04" 9 + 1' 04" 10 + 1' 05"
Stage 5 3 September 2008 – Ciudad Real, 42 km (ITT)
The first individual time trial of the Vuelta took place on a completely flat course in Ciudad Real. It was predicted that the winner would have an average of speed of over 50 km/h.
The early time to beat was set by Manuel Quinziato of Liquigas, blowing away the times that had come before him by more than a minute. Around an hour after Quinziato's ride, a pack of General classification favorites took the course, and the first of them, Astana's Levi Leipheimer, clocked in 33 seconds better than Quinziato, and held on to win the stage as well as the next golden jersey. The only other man to beat Quinziato on the day was something of a surprise, Sylvain Chavanel of Cofidis, who is not normally known, in international competition, for his time trialling skills. The other contenders all turned in strong rides, leaving the GC tightly bunched with the Pyrenees looming.
Stage 5 results RiderTeamTime 1 50'57" 2 + 12" 3 + 33" 4 + 49" 5 + 59" 6 +1' 06" 7 +1' 07" 8 +1' 15" 9 +1' 19" 10 Gerolsteiner +1' 19"General classification after Stage 5 RiderTeamTime 1 14h16'11" 2 + 2" 3 + 30" 4 + 32" 5 + 47" 6 + 1' 26" 7 + 1' 27" 8 + 1' 38" 9 + 1' 48" 10 + 1' 51"
Stage 6 4 September 2008 – Ciudad Real to Toledo, 150 km
In what was the last stage branded as flat before the Vuelta entered the mountains, there was one third-category climb 50 kilometers before the finish. After that peak, there was a sharp descent and a flat section with two intermediate sprints before the altitude dropped again in the city of Toledo. The finish was on a slight uphill, which was thought to test the sprinters' limits in what was expected nonetheless to be a mass finish.
The day's successful breakaway formed after about 7 kilometers, involving Iban Mayoz, Mikhail Ignatiev, and Volodymyr Dyudya. The team that paced the pack in efforts to bring them back was Cofidis, looking to have one solid group at the intermediate sprints later in the course so Sylvain Chavanel could make up the 2 second gap he had to race leader Levi Leipheimer. There was a big crash in the pack at the 68 kilometer mark, mostly involving riders from Silence-Lotto, Quick Step, Xacobeo-Galicia, and Bouygues Télécom, as well as Alejandro Valverde and Tom Boonen, who later called on the race doctor for some medical attention. The Cofidis-paced main field caught the break at the 108 kilometer mark, just after the one categorized climb of the day and just before the intermediate sprints. Shortly afterward, the blistering pace set by Cofidis, along with some crosswinds, led to another crash, at the 112 kilometer mark. Chavanel won the two intermediate sprints and became the new overall leader of the Vuelta on the road, thanks to the twelve bonus seconds he won with them. Numerous riders attacked on the way into Toledo and a pack led by Paolo Bettini, who won the sprint to the line, was the successful one. The field in fact fractured quite a bit - there were six large groups separated, collectively, by less than a minute at the end of the stage.
Stage 6 results RiderTeamTime 1 3h 19' 28" 2 s.t. 3 s.t. 4 s.t. 5 s.t. 6 s.t. 7 Crédit Agricole s.t. 8 s.t. 9 s.t. 10 s.t.General classification after Stage 6 RiderTeamTime 1 17h 35' 35" 2 + 10" 3 + 26" 4 + 57" 5 + 1' 37" 6 + 1' 42" 7 + 1' 44" 8 + 2' 01" 9 + 2' 06" 10 + 2' 20"
Rest day 5 September 2008
Stage 7 6 September 2008 – Barbastro to Naturlandia-La Rabassa (Andorra), 223 km
The longest stage of the 2008 Vuelta, as well as one of the most mountainous, the first action after the rest day was a stern test for the riders. There were four categorized climbs along the way, one each in the first, second, and third categories with a special category climb at the finish in Andorra making this stage a playground for riders who like to battle gravity.
This day belonged to Alessandro Ballan. He was part of a five-man group, along with Marc de Maar, Iñigo Landaluze, Gianni Meersman, and Xabier Zandio, that broke away at the 18 kilometer mark, and stayed out in front of the field all day to claim the stage win. He had other prizes awaiting him at the podium in Andorra, namely the golden jersey (giving the Vuelta its sixth different overall leader in seven stages), the red jersey, and the white jersey. He was also only 7 points shy of claiming the blue jersey. The route was marked by terrible weather, in particular rain and cold temperatures, which Ballan would later say helped him win, in that he is accustomed to such weather living in northern Italy.
The lead Ballan's breakaway had over the pack grew to a maximum of just under eleven minutes before Astana, the team of GC hopefuls Levi Leipheimer and Alberto Contador, took the pace of the main field to try to reel them in. Their pace was so blisteringly fast that it cracked more than two-thirds of the field, members of which dropped as much as thirty minutes behind them. When Astana ratcheted up its speed, the breakaway did as well, as Zandio was dropped, falling minutes behind them. Ballan attacked from his group and got free at the 14 kilometers to go mark and quickly attained a lead of two minutes over the other three, staying out front to win the stage. The elite main group led by Astana caught the other members of the day's breakaway, and attacked and jockeyed for position at the finish some three minutes behind Ballan.
Stage 7 results RiderTeamTime 1 6h 15' 51" 2 + 2' 42" 3 + 2' 45" 4 + 2' 50" 5 s.t. 6 s.t. 7 s.t. 8 + 3' 03" 9 + 3' 11" 10 Gerolsteiner s.t.General classification after Stage 7 RiderTeamTime 1 25h 53' 26" 2 + 1' 00" 3 + 1' 21" 4 + 1' 34" 5 + 2' 06" 6 + 2' 27" 7 + 2' 59" 8 + 2' 59" 9 + 3' 17" 10 + 3' 23"
Stage 8 7 September 2008 – Escaldes-Engordany (Andorra) to Plá de Beret, 151 km
This short, yet extremely mountainous, stage was thought to invite many early attacks, as the race re-entered Spain. There were three first category climbs on the course, and the finish was on a slight downhill after the Alto de Plá de Beret. This stage also featured the highest point in the 2008 Vuelta, the first-category Port de la Bonaigua, at 2,070 meters in elevation.