- Herrada Claims Stage Victory in Vuelta an España
- Leaders Maintain Strong Position
- Mountains Classification Shakeup
Wednesday’s stage 11 of the Vuelta an Espaa, a 163.5-kilometer journey from Lerma to La Laguna Negra, was won by Jess Herrada, who was strongest after a climbing finish.
Numerous early attempts to escape from the pack were thwarted by the peloton. A group of 26 riders, including Herrada of Cofidis, formed the decisive breakaway after nearly 50 kilometers. Groupama-FDJ’s Romain Grégoire placed second, three seconds behind Herrada, while Lotto-Dstny’s Andreas Kron placed third.
All of the leading contenders for the overall victory finished nearly six minutes behind the winner. Sepp Kuss of the United States retained the leader’s red jersey for Jumbo-Visita.
The main group, controlled by the Soudal-Quick-Step team in the closing stages, was content to allow the final breakaway group to extend its advantage to over five minutes, posing no threat to the race leaders.
This group included Tuesday’s time trial victor Filippo Ganna and his Ineos Grenadiers teammate Geraint Thomas. After a mostly flat route, the final 6.5 kilometers of the stage featured a category-one climb. Before entering the incline, Julius Johansen of Intermarché-Wanty unsuccessfully attempted to escape twice.
Paul Ourselin of TotalEnergies then attempted the same move, but shortly into the final climb, Ganna set the tempo, passing Ourselin and reducing the leading group to nine riders.
Ganna had made all the effort, but his teammate Thomas was unable to capitalize, placing fifth behind Jonathan Caicedo of Ecuador.
“I felt as though I was out of oxygen at the end. We had limited resources, but we gave everything we had that day,” Thomas said. “However, the final ascent was too precipitous. I couldn’t quite complete it, but we’ll keep attempting,” said the Welshman, who moved up to 18th overall, 7 minutes and 34 seconds behind Kuss.
Caicedo of EF Education–EasyPost attempted a breakaway and held the lead with 300 meters remaining, but he was passed by Kron, Gregoire, and Spain’s Herrada, who made the decisive break to claim his third career stage victory at La Vuelta.
“It’s always difficult to know when your day will come, but you have to try – sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t,” Herrada said after recovering from his visibly exhausted final effort. “I am very content. My objective was to win a stage… Now we can appreciate the remainder of the race and continue to fight.”
After claiming his third career Vuelta stage victory, Herrada stated, “I knew it was a good finish for me, but it was difficult to even get in the breakaway.” “It was difficult to attack with riders in the breakaway and Thomas present, so I waited for the sprint and won.”
Five minutes and fifty seconds separated the general classification’s top five riders from the stage victor.
Kuss maintains a 26sec advantage over Marc Soler of Team UAE-Emirates, with Remco Evenepoel of Soudal-QuickStep and Primoz Roglic of Jumbo-Visma in third and fourth, respectively.
“It wasn’t too bad, but I think everyone wanted to do a good pace at the end, so it was a bit strange,” Kuss said before turning his attention to the battle for the overall victory. “You must always have faith,” he said. “It’s pretty straightforward; I give my all every day, and I enjoy wearing the red jersey.”
The Cofidis rider now leads the mountains classification, surpassing Eduardo Sepulveda of Lotto-Dstn and Evenepoel, thanks to Herrada’s stage victory. The 151-kilometer stage 12 route from Olvega to Zaragoza on Thursday is flat.
