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Primoz Roglic and Enric Mas made a significant move in the 11th stage of the Vuelta a España, reducing the gap to race leader Ben O’Connor by 37 seconds. This stage, held on Wednesday, stretched 166.5 kilometers, starting and finishing at the Cortizo Technology Campus in Padrón.
The Slovenian rider from Red Bull and the Spanish cyclist from Movistar, currently second and fourth in the general classification, launched a decisive attack on the final climb of the day, the short but steep Puerto de Cruxeiras (3rd category, 2.8 km at 9%), about 10 kilometers from the finish. The Australian leader, Ben O’Connor, could not respond to their acceleration.
Roglic and Mas were eventually joined by Mikel Landa (T-Rex Quick-Step), Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers), and Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull). This group crossed the finish line 3 minutes and 31 seconds behind the stage winner, Irishman Edward Dunbar (Jayco-Aula). Like him, Dunbar outperformed a group of 13 riders who had been part of the original breakaway, which initially included 36 riders. The breakaway group solidified after the first 60 kilometers but began to fragment just before the final climb of the day.
Belgian Quentin Hermans (Alpecin-Deceuninck) finished second in the stage, while British rider Max Poole (DMS-Firmenich) took third, just two seconds behind Dunbar. The rest of the breakaway group crossed the line two seconds later.
Despite losing 37 seconds, Ben O’Connor remains the overall leader, now with a reduced margin of 3 minutes and 16 seconds over Primoz Roglic and 3 minutes and 58 seconds over Enric Mas.
Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), who had been in third place overall, dropped to fourth after losing 15 seconds to both Mas and Roglic. However, Carapaz managed to gain 22 seconds on O’Connor, leaving him 4 minutes and 10 seconds behind the Australian in the general classification.