Team Sky's Chris Froome has won stage eleven of the 93rd Vuelta a España.
A 168.6 kilometres stage from Colunga to the summit finish at Peña Cabarga saw Silvio Herklotz (Bora-Argon18) and Simon Clarke and Patrick Bevin (Cannondale-Drapac) not starting and Ben Hermans (BMC), Martijn Keizer (Lotto NL-Jumbo), Pello Bilbao, Angel Madrazo (Caja Rural – RGA Seguros), Davide Malacarne (Astana), Koen De Kort and Johannes Fröhlinger (Giant - Alpecin), Kiel Reijnen (Trek - Segafredo), Jan Bakelants, Axel Domont (AG2R - La Mondiale), Tiago Machado, Jhonatan Restrepo (Katusha), Sander Armée (Lotto Soudal), Pieter Serry, Zdenek Stybar (Etixx - Quick Step), Pierre Rolland (Cannonade - Drapac), Jacques Janse van Rensburg, Merhawi Kudus (Dimension Data), Jonas Van Genechten (IAM Cycling), Kristin Durasek, Ilya Koshevoy (Lampre - Merida), Cesare Benedetti and Christoph Pfingsten (Bora-Argon18) in a break with one hundred kilometres to go.
This break managed to get 4.51 clear but was pulled back to 2.17 with 57kms to go.
Zdenek Stybar took the points at the intermediate sprint at Suances as the gap continued to drop and was down to 51 seconds with 23 kilometres to go.
Onto the Pena Cabarga climb with just over five kilometres left and the break was over on the 18% gradient and only Ben Hermans and Jan Bakelants were clear of the chasing pack led by Movistar.
Hermans dropped Bakelants and kept pushing but his time on the front was numbered and he was caught with 2.9kms to go.
Suddenly, Esteban Chaves of Orica BikeExchange attacked and got eighteen seconds clear with just over a kilometres remaining.
The race leader Nairo Quintana was on the wheel of Chris Froome as the gap came down to ten seconds.
Quintana attacked and passed Chaves with Froome in his wheel. Froome got past the Colombian with 500 metres to go and then led going into the sprint to take the win in 3.44.47 ahead of Quintana, Valverde, Konig, Contador and Simon Yates.
The win and the four seconds lifts Chris Froome into second place on General Classification, 54 seconds behind Nairo Quintana.
Source: DSG
