Stage 11

The road

At the start

A Norwegian in red, and the muro

A thirty-one-man breakaway with twelve minutes in it turned this race upside down: Odd Christian Eiking is in red, Guillaume Martin second at 58 seconds, and Roglič — who attacked, crashed on the descent and still took time out of Bernal — is third at 2:17. Today is short, 134 kilometres, and ends on the wall through Valdepeñas de Jaén.

How it was won

1. 115 km to go

   Onto the Locubín

   The 8.8km climb begins with fifteen kilometres to race and the break falls apart on the lower slopes as the peloton lifts the pace and fights for position.

2. 28 km to go

   Cort tries it again

   Just as at Cullera, the Dane pushes on alone over the top, holding fifty seconds and nearly cracking BikeExchange's best domestiques. De la Cruz attacks two kilometres from the summit and only serves as a hare for Jumbo-Visma, who thin the front group to thirty.

3. 33 km to go

   Into the streets of Valdepeñas

   Cort dives down through the olive groves and still has twenty seconds as the vicious final ramp through the narrow town begins. Kuss and Kruijswijk go to work in front of Roglič.

4. 4At the line

   Three hundred metres

   Cort holds them off almost the whole way. Then Roglič, tucked low on the drops while Mas dances on the brake hoods beside him, unleashes the finishing surge that has defined his career and sweeps past the Dane with the line in sight.

5. 5At the line

   Valdepeñas de Jaén

   Three seconds on every one of his rivals, and confirmation that the crash in Rincón de la Victoria cost him nothing.

The result