Lopez wins mountain top finish at Calar Alto as Froome extends lead

Chris Froome extends his lead in the Red jersey as Miguel Lopez wins stunning summit showdown

Miguel Lopez of Team Astana took a stunning win on top of the summit finish at Calar Alto beating red jersey wearer Chris Froome to 2nd place on Stage 11 of the Vuelta a Espana. Froome showed his strong form on a final climb that fragmented the entire race and distanced Esteban Chavez of Team Orica-Scott, further from the red jersey.

Despite losing the stage to Lopez, Chris Froome extended his overall lead. He finished over 2 minutes ahead of Chaves, and even took a vital 6 second bonus over Vincenzo Nibali in the sprint for the line.

With climbs of the Velefique and the 2,120m summit finish at Calar Alto, it was clearly a day for a showdown between the Vuelta’s strongest climbers and GC contenders.

Despite that gruelling mountain finish and torrential rain, riders were eager to get in the breakaway.

An early attack from Julian Alaphilippe was brought pack quickly, no doubt on account of his admirable climbing form.

In the following 20km numerous attacks were launched, but it was a break led by Romain Bardet that eventually got away,

The break contained 14 riders, including Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale), Bob Jungels (Quick-Step Floors), Alessandro De Marchi (BMC), Antonio Pedrero (Movistar), Lennard Hofstede (Sunweb), Simon Clarke (Cannondale-Drapac), Antwan Tolhoek (LottoNL-Jumbo), Matej Mohoric (UAE Team Emirates), Sander Armée (Lotto Soudal), Giovanni Visconti (Bahrain-Merida), Igor Anton (Dimension Data), David Arroyo (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Conor Dunne (Aqua Blue Sport) and Aldemar Reyes (Manzana Postobon).

Despite some big names in the leading group, the gap only extended as far as 4 m 45 secs.

With 50km to go, the break’s lead was down to 2m 25 seconds, as the peloton’s pace began to pick up.

Entering the Velefique climb, the breakaway hovered at around 1 minute on the steep lower slopes.

Darwin Atapuma and Simon Yates were the big names to disrupt the order by bridging up from the main group to the breakaway, which was gradually trimming down in numbers, but continued to be led by Bardet.

Team Sky controlled the pace and the main pack reduced down to a group of 20-25 riders as chase began.

Bardet attacked and Yates followed. Atapuma eventually closed the gap, making for a very capable group alongside Bardet, Simon Yates, Visconti, and Armee.  The break stretched out to 1m 30s over the peloton at the top of the climb of the Velefique.

Only Yates, Bardet and Atapuma arrived at the base of the final climb of Calar Alto over 2m 30s ahead of the peloton.

With 14km to go on the climb, Atapuma and Bardet accelerated on, Yates being dropped.

Drama unfolded behind as Vincenzo Nibali and Alberto Contador attacked Team Sky and opened up a small gap. The red jersey group was shreded to just 5 riders, Moscon, Poels, Froome, Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) and Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana).

Team Sky's Poels and Moscon pulled back the attack of Nibali and Contador.

With attacks in the red jersey group, Bardet and Atapuma were caught and the front group grew to 10 riders.

Esteban Chaves found himself in trouble, his group over 50 seconds behind, seriously denting his chances for taking back the red jersey.

With 3 kms to go Nibali made a savage attack which fragmented the group on the steep 10% slopes, Loepz counter-attacked to get a decisive gap in the final kilometre.

Behind Froome, Nibali and Kelderman crossed the line 14 seconds behind.

The biggest loser of the day was Esteban Chaves who lost nearly two minutes and dropped to third overall, behind Vincenzo Nibali.

Froome is now 1m 19 secs in the lead, a drastic contrast compared to being only 36 seconds in the lead yesterday.

2017 Vuelta a Espana Stage 11 Top Ten 

1 Miguel Angel Lopez (Col) Astana Pro Team 5:05:09 
2 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 0:00:14 
3 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida   
4 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb   
5 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:31 
6 Alberto Contador (Spa) Trek-Segafredo   
7 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin   
8 Mikel Nieve (Spa) Team Sky   
9 Darwin Atapuma (Col) UAE Team Emirates 0:01:02 
10 David De La Cruz (Spa) Quick-Step Floors 0:01:14

2017 Vuelta a Espana GC after Stage 11

1 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 45:18:01 
2 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:01:19 
3 Johan Esteban Chaves Rubio (Col) Orica-Scott 0:02:33 
4 David de la Cruz (Spa) Quick-Step Floors 0:02:36 
5 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:02:37 
6 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin 0:02:38 
7 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:02:57 
8 Michael Woods (Can) Cannondale-Drapac 0:03:01 
9 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Trek-Segafredo 0:03:55 
10 Miguel Angel Lopez (Col) Astana Pro Team 0:04:11

VIDEO: 2017 Vuelta a Espana Stage 11 Highlights