Four chemical transformations happened in this tandem reaction. First, treating fragment A with n-butyllithium formed carbon anion that attacked the alkyliodide part of fragment B to generate intermediate C (step 1). Then a 3, 4-dihydropyran derivative D was formed through base-mediated elimination reaction on intermediate C (step 2). The protecting group on 1, 3-diol moiety in intermediate D was removed by acid treatment to give the diol product E (step 3). The spiroketal product G was generated via intramolecular ketal formation reaction. This multistep tandem reaction greatly simplified the construction of this complex spiroketal structure and eased the path towards the total synthesis of routiennocin.