Herrada wins Stage as Teuns Grabs Race Lead at Crash Marred Stage

Rigoberto Uran, Nicolas Roche, Hugh Carthy and Victor De La Parte all abandon the race after huge crash 

Jesus Herrada won Thursday's crash-marred sixth stage of the Vuelta a Espana with Belgian Dylan Teuns grabbing the leaders' red jersey.

Ireland's Nicolas Roche, who topped the general classifications earlier in the week, and Rigoberto Uran, were two high profile casualties of the pile-up in the peloton at the 105 kilometre marker that them and  Hugh Carthy and Victor De La Parte all abandoned the race.

Tony Martin who was also involved, was seen continuing the race, with half his kit ripped wide open.

With 25 kms to go, Tejay van Garderen was seen lying in some trees, have lost control on a bend. After being attended to, he later climbed back on his bike well behind the favorites.

Herrada and Teuns broke away on the final climb and fought to the finish at Ares del Maestrat, the Valencian village perched 1,195m above sea level, at the end of a tough 199km ride from Mora de Rubielos.

Teuns snatched the red jersey from Miguel Angel Lopez, the Colombian who was unable to keep up with the favorites and dropped down in the overall standings.

Teuns said afterwards, "I started to realise that it was possible to get the leader’s jersey in a Grand Tour. It was a goal in this Vuelta and yeah, I did it. More or less I knew it was possible – that’s why yesterday I was disappointed about not being in the break. But I still kept going on the climb so as not to lose too much time. It was all in the plan actually. With 4km to go… I knew a 3-4 minute climb is my speciality, like the Ardennes, and from there I just went full gas, with the hope nobody would stay in the wheel, but there was one guy who could follow. He didn’t want to do a turn, and then I didn’t have the punch anymore. I gave everything for the jersey today. Also for the victory, but in the end one guy was smarter or stronger."

David de la Cruz finished in 9th place to move up to 2nd overall. With Roche and Uran out of the race, Robert Gesink's 4th place on the stage saw him jump into 6th place overall.

The rest of the GC favorites Roglic, Quintana, Valverde, Chaves and Majka are all in the top ten.

Tomorrow's Stage 7 is another really tough day with another mountain top finish, probably the hardest yet in this year's race.

VIDEO: 2019 La Vuelta Stage 6 Highlights

2019 La Vuelta Stage 6 Top 10

1 José Herrada Lopez (Spa) Cofidis Solutions Credits 4:43:55
2 Dylan Teuns (Bel) Bahrian-Merida 4:44:02
3 Dorian Godon (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 4:44:16
4 Robert Gesink (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma 4:44:16
5 Bruno Armirail (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 4:44:32
6 Pawel Poljanski (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe 4:44:34
7 Nelson Oliveira (Por) Movistar Team 4:44:40
8 Gianluca Brambilla (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 4:44:42
9 David de la Cruz (Spa) Team Sky 4:44:45
10 Tsgabu Grmay (Eth) Mitchelton-Scott 4:46:30

2019 La Vuelta GC after Stage 6

1 Dylan Teuns (Bel) Bahrain-Merida 23:44:00
2 David de la Cruz (Spa) Team Sky 23:44:38
3 Miguel Angel Lopez (Col) Astana Pro Team 23:45:00
4 Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma 23:45:14
5 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 23:45:23
6 Robert Gesink (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma 23:45:23
7 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 23:45:28
8 Esteban Chaves (Col) Mitchelton-Scott 23:46:17
9 Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe 23:46:18
10 Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates 23:46:47