Race Report: The stage started quickly with a 9 man break going clear. After letting a stage win go to a break in the last two days the climbers were desperate to take this stage win for themselves. Quintana went early on the climb but he faded towards the top as did Fabio Aru. Joaquin Rodriguez timed his attack to perfection and took his first win in this year’s Vuelta, although he missed out on red by one second. Tom Dumoulin was unhitched near the top but he was able to limit his losses by less than a second and he remains a favourite for the podium.RouteA 176km, largely flat, romp along the Cantabrian coast. The opening 100km are pan flat before the 2nd category Alto del Torno (10.1km @ 3.2%) there’s then 38 rolling kilometers before the final, incredibly steep Alto de Sotres (12.7km @ 7.9%). The Sotres starts steeply before easing mid way up, the final 3km are hellish though with sustained sections above 13%.A Fast StartThe last two stages have ended in breakaways and the Movistar led peloton weren’t content to let this stage end the same way. The first attack featured Biel Kadri (AG2R-La Mondiale), Maxime Monfort and Jelle Vanendert (Lotto Soudal), Amael Moinard (BMC), Kristijan Durasek (Lampre-Merida), Natnael Berhane (MTN-Qhubeka) and Sylvain Chavanel (IAM Cycling). Etixx – Quick-Step had missed the move though and they began chasing before sending Carlos Verona (Etixx – Quick-Step) up the road, he was joined by Tosh Van der Sande...
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