American Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Slipstream) continued his breakout season by winning the bunch sprint in stage 11 of the Vuelta a España into Caravaca. Farrar beat Philippe Gilbert (Silence-Lotto) and Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil).
The GC battle was on hold, but the mountain jersey changed shoulders once again. David Moncoutié (Cofidis) slipped into the break of the day to win both KOM’s on offer. This gave him the jersey back from David De La Fuente (Fuji-Servetto).
Farrar benefited from the strong work by Liquigas, which was in charge for the last 50km. Making his move inside the last 100m on the right hand side of the road, Farrar had enough time to check on Gilbert and celebrate early.
Farrar moved up to second place in the points classification, behind André Greipel (Columbia-Highroad). Greipel finished fifth today to keep a seven-point margin.
Valverde had his biggest moment after the race, clearly delighted to receive the leader’s jersey by Spanish hero Miguel Indurain, the five-time Tour de France winner.
Notable moves came from Fabian Cancellara, who made an impressive solo effort on the final climb of the day to regain the peloton and again inside the final kilometer. Cancellara eyes the World Championships double and defied the lack of time trialing in this year’s Vuelta.
The KOM battle continues
The day started with hot news, as Fränk Schleck left the Vuelta before stage 11 and the thermometer showed 32C.
The initial flurry of attacks eventually pitched mountain hopefuls Moncoutié and De La Fuente against each other. Moncoutié decided the mano-a-mano, left De La Fuente, formed a group with Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil) and Amets Txurruka (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and won the category one climb after 58km.
The three built a maximum lead of almost ten minutes, after about 70km.
The sprinters’ teams could count on Caisse d’Epargne of golden jersey Valverde to bring the gap down. Hoogerland was the virtual leader on the road, as he trailed Valverde by only four and a half minutes. Liquigas pitched in on the Alto de Campo de San Juan, the second climb of the day.
The peloton reached the bottom of the ascent about three and a half minutes after the break. Moncoutié defended well and led the trio over the top, still a minute clear.
In the descent the break was caught and Rémy Di Gregorio (Française des Jeux) countered. His impressive 60km/h solo was reeled in with 20km to go, setting the day up for the field sprint.