Vuelta a Espana: De la Cruz wins on the Alto del Naranco

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David de la Cruz gave Etixx-QuickStep its third stage victory of the Vuelta a España, also parlaying the day's successful breakaway into the overall race lead. It was the Spaniard's first professional win.

De la Cruz was the best placed rider in the 12-man breakaway, and escaped with Dries Devenyns (IAM Cycling) on the Alto del Naranco, the final climb of a five-mountain day. Devenyns suffered a miss-shift at a critical moment and De la Cruz leapt away to take out a spectacular home soil victory.

He now leads the overall by 22 seconds on Nairo Quintana and his Movistar teammate Alejandro Valverde by 41 seconds.

"It way my objective today but to be honest, I wasn’t thinking about the race leadership towards the end. I was just thinking about winning the stage," De la Cruz said. "It was very hard to ride with Devenyns because he was very hard to beat. I can’t believe that I won.

"I felt good sometimes, other times I didn’t feel so good and I didn’t think that I would have enough to finish it off, with so many good riders in the break. I thought to myself, ‘let’s try and go to the end’ and I won. I’ve been close a few times and I’ve not won - but today I got the stage and the race lead, so let’s see how long we can keep it."

Devenyns was disappointed not to have added to his team's success in the race, but said de la Cruz was simply stronger.

"I'm disappointed. This was a great opportunity," Devenyns said according to Sporza.be. "We rode with a nice group.

"The collaboration with De La Cruz went well, but in the end, certainly in the last kilometer, he was just stronger. I'm more of a puncheur. He simply climbs better than me. I'm going to try to get in an escape in the later stages still, but now I am mainly disappointed."

Movistar's Ruben Fernandez, who led the race after stage 3, was not worried that the team had lost the red jersey.

"We know that we’ve got many days remaining, we knew it would be complicated. Today the breakaway went in the end, they were very strong and they were quick but tomorrow will be very hard and very different," Fernandez said.

"It’s not so bad for us, of course we would have liked to keep the leader’s jersey but the race is still long. Hopefully we’ll take it back. At the end, we had to ride pretty hard but then we rode pretty hard throughout the whole stage and they were just really strong."

How it unfolded

It took some time but the day's breakaway finally came together 15 kilometres into the stage, and the teams who missed the move, mainly Trek-Segafredo and Dimension Data, fought hard to bring it back but were ultimately unsuccessful.

Once again, the breakaway riders would be given a long leash by the overall leaders, with Simon Clarke (Cannondale-Drapac), Dylan Teuns (BMC), Alexandre Geniez (FDJ), Jan Bakelants (AG2R La Mondiale), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), David de la Cruz (Etixx-QuickStep), Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana), Moreno Moser (Cannondale-Drapac), Mathias Frank (IAM Cycling), Dries Devenyns (IAM Cycling), Bartosz Huzarski (Bora Argon 18), Pello Bilbao (Caja Rural) allowed to enjoy their day in the sun.

De la Cruz was the best placed rider in the move at 2:46 from Nairo Quintana (Movistar). De Gendt and Geniez battled for the mountains classification, with the Belgian taking out the first three climbs - the category 2 Alto de San Isidro, the Alto de Sto. Emiliano and the Alto de San Tirso (both category 3). But the Lotto-Soudal rider might have given a bit too much gas to the San Tirso, going solo after the crest before being rejoined by his escape companions, because when they caught him and Bakelants and Devenyns began attacking, De Gendt was dropped out the back.

Bakelants and Devenyns were joined by Teuns and De la Cruz, but the fourth climb, the Alto de la Manzaneda, put an end to their move and Geniez took the points at the top. De la Cruz and Devenyns took a chance after the crest, hitting out with 12km to go, and quickly opened up a gap of a dozen seconds on their former companions.

On the Alto del Naranco, it became clear that the pair would battle for the stage win, with De la Cruz fighting for the chance to wear the red jersey. But the battle fizzled when Devenyns mis-shifted and the Spaniard took out the stage win and race lead.

Behind, Peter Kennaugh (Team Sky) put in an attack on the final climb to try to shake things up, but he was mowed down by the Movistar express. Gianluca Brambilla (Etixx-QuickStep) sprinted away from the peloton behind the 11 escapees, with all of the favorites tucked on Samuel Sanchez's (BMC) wheel coming in at 2:56 from the winner.

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