Stage 11

The road

At the start

Contador in red, up to Aralar

Alberto Contador rode the time trial of a man who never broke his leg in July and took the race lead, 27 seconds up on Alejandro Valverde and 1:18 on Chris Froome, while Nairo Quintana crashed away four minutes. Today leaves Pamplona for the Puerto de Lizarraga and then eleven kilometres at eight per cent up to the monastery of San Miguel de Aralar, on concrete rather than asphalt.

How it was won

1. 1102 km to go

   Quintana abandons

   Fifty kilometres of ferocious attacking at 50km/h, and in the middle of it the Giro winner goes down again with Morabito. This time he does not get back up: the crash on yesterday's descent has finished him, and the Vuelta loses its Colombian.

2. 294 km to go

   The break finally goes

   After the sprint at Tafalla, Favilli, Le Bon, Ligthart and Kiryienka escape at last, Bilbao soloing across to join them. Behind, Bouet and a virus-stricken Thibaut Pinot both climb off.

3. 355 km to go

   Kiryienka alone

   With their lead down to little more than two minutes and 55km left, the Belarusian decides to stop sharing and rides away from the rest of the break.

4. 431 km to go

   Three minutes over Lizarraga

   Ligthart and then Le Bon fall away on the long third-category climb while Kiryienka crests three minutes clear — nowhere near enough with Katusha driving for Rodríguez.

5. 57 km to go

   Froome is dropped

   Six and a half kilometres from the hermitage the Sky leader loses the wheel. Barguil attacks, Gesink goes past him and forges thirty seconds, and the red jersey group starts to come apart behind.

6. 62 km to go

   Froome fights back, Contador blows past

   Navarro then Dan Martin light the group up three times over. Froome, written off two kilometres ago, hauls himself back to his rivals and rides straight through them — and Contador barely hesitates before going by him with 1.8km to go, as if the Briton were standing still.

7. 7At the line

   Aru picks his moment

   Gesink is reeled in 1.3km from glory and, in the half-second of hesitation that follows, Fabio Aru attacks the select group and is gone. Six seconds at the line over Valverde, and the Sardinian is back in the podium fight.

The result