cycling: Vuelta a Espana Stage #11: Froome hits back against Quintana

Cycling: Chris Froome (Sky) won the 11th stage of the Vuelta a Espana after yesterday's rest day. He prevailed in the uphill sprint against his toughest competitor Nairo Quintana (Movistar). However, the Colombian is still a comfortable 54 seconds ahead of the Brit in the overall standings.

Comfortable stage after the rest day? Not at all!

After yesterday's rest day, many would have expected a quiet exit on the 11th stage of the Vuelta a Espana. The profile also gave no reason to believe that a particularly brisk pace was set from the start today. But things turned out differently: the long and flat ascent to the foot of the final ascent was covered at 46 km/h. After a hard-fought initial phase, the 23-strong leading group was able to break away after around an hour of racing, including such first-class drivers as Ben Hermans (BMC), Jan Bakelants (Ag2r), Tiago Machado (Katusha), Pieter Serry (Etixx-Quick Step), Pierre Rolland (Cannonade), Merhawi Kudus (Dimension Data) and Kristin Durasek (Lampre). The two Germans Johannes Fröhlinger (Giant-Alpecin) and Christoph Pfingsten (Bora-Argon 18) were also able to position themselves in the leading group. Due to the enormous size, however, this was not left out very far. Above all, Alberto Contador's Tinkoff team kept the pace very high for almost the entire race. Apparently they had big plans for the Spaniard today. He's not surprising, because with a deficit of 2:54 minutes to the current overall leader Nairo Quintana (Movistar), he was under a lot of pressure. As did the breakaways, because when the final climb began, the lead was less than 20 seconds.

Contador and Chaves are not rewarded

No sooner had the Peña Cabarga tackled the final 5,6 kilometers of climbing of the day than Contador was isolated and Team Movistar took over. With an average incline of 9,8 percent, it was already expected before the start that the top favorites would knock each other out of each other's shoes, despite the short hill. Meanwhile, the two remaining escapees, Hermans and Bakelants, fought back, but their lead was far too small and, as expected, they were caught. The field kept declining, mainly because Ruben Fernandez (Movistar) once again showed himself to be a helpful mountain goat for Valverde and Quintana. With just over a kilometer to go, Esteban Chaves (Orica-BikeExchange) broke cover and was the first of the favorites to attack. There was a gap of around 15 seconds. Among the pursuers, Chris Froome (Sky) once again had slight problems holding the rear wheel of his competitors. Quintana seemed to notice and attacked with 500 meters to go. But now Froome was the only one who could follow him. Chaves was caught up and the remaining drivers could no longer keep up the pace. Finally it came to the sprint, which Froome won ahead of Quintana. The Brit repeated his victory from 2011. Valverde was third, losing six seconds in the end, just like the fifth Contador. The work of the Tinkoff team has not paid off. Incidentally, Chaves even lost a whopping 19 seconds in the end.

Vuelta a Espana Stage #11 – The daily standings:

Vuelta a Espana Stage #11 – Overall standings: