Omega Pharma- Quick-Step Cycling Team rider Rigoberto Uran remains 3rd in the GC of La Vuelta a España, following 153.4km high mountain Stage 11 where, despite attack after attack, all the top GC contenders finished just seconds apart.
Fabio Aru (Astana) won the stage solo, counter attacking an acceleration of Daniel Navarro (Cofidis) with about 900m to go. He won by 6" over Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha), and Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo). Chris Froome (Team Sky) finished 7" down, and Uran 13" down in 6th place. The separation between all the top contenders happened within the final few hundred meters of the stage that finished on Cat. 1 Alto de San Miguel.
A select group was formed on the final climb after they caught Vasil Kiryienka (Team Sky) at the beginning of the final climb. Robert Gesink (Belkin) went solo after dropping fellow attacker Warren Barguil (Giant-Shimano), but he was caught with 1.3km to go. Uran remained in a group that continued to shed riders with each passing kilometer.
Kiryienka went solo out of the breakaway of the day with 56.4km to go. That breakaway formed after a large group of more than 30 riders, including race leader Contador, was caught.
OPQS looks next to 166.4km Stage 12, which is flat.
"Today was a super fast start, full gas at about 50 kilometers per hour," Uran said. "Then there was a big crash involving also Nairo Quintana (Movistar). I'm sorry for him, that he crashed and had to withdraw from the race. I really hope that it's nothing serious, but two crashes in two days hurts a lot for sure. I wish him a fast recovery and I hope to see him back on the road as soon as possible. On the climb I felt good. If you consider the three uphill finishes so far, today was probably the best for me. I felt better and it showed I recovered well from my effort at the time trial yesterday. I am happy also because the team was really good today, supporting me always. We'll continue to take this race day-by-day and we will see what can happen. Tomorrow is a day on paper that we can maybe recover a bit. But we will see. You never know what can happen each day at La Vuelta."
