MADRID, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) and Enric Mas (Movistar) clipped 37 seconds off the overall lead of Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R-La Mondiale) after working him over in the last kilometer of the final climb of the day in Stage 11 of the Vuelta a Espana on Wednesday.

Roglic's team isolated O'Connor on the slopes of the Puerto Cruxeiras around 10 kilometers from the finish, allowing the three-time La Vuelta winner to use his speed to rise away, with Mas following.

O'Connor lacks Roglic's explosive speed and ended up ceding 37 seconds, to see his overall lead reduced to 3 minutes and 16 seconds.

Stage 11 was another testing 166-kilometer slog, which started and finished at the Campus Tecnologico Cortizo in Galicia, in northwest Spain, with four third category climbs, including two ascents of the Puerto Aguasantas, as the riders completed a circuit that saw them pass the finish line three times.

The day saw another breakaway of over 20 riders allowed to get away, with the race favorites having their own worries behind.

Eddie Dunbar (Jayco-AlUla) won the stage to take his first ever stage win in a major tour.

The Irish rider surprised his companions in the break when he attacked inside the last kilometer, catching the other riders by surprise and winning two seconds ahead of Quinten Hermans (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Max Poole (Team DSM-firmenich PostNL).

Thursday sees a short but intense 137 kilometers between Ourense and the Estacion Montana de Manzaneda, which has an uphill profile over the stage and finishes with a first category climb, where Roglic looks likely to attack O'Connor again. Enditem

Related

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)