The most demanding stage of the Tour de France did not extinguish the fighint spirit of Rubén Plaza. 

Just afew meters after the start of the 19th stage, the Spanish rider from Team LAMPRE-MERIDA and another 14 riders escaped from the bunch. The breakaway was joined by 12 riders for a total of 26 members, who were reeled in by the yellow jersey group.

Some of the attackers, including Plaza, did not give up and after 35km they attacked again, forming a 22-rider group which escaped from the peloton. On the vey long climb of the Croix de Fer (22,4 km), Rolland attacked and only Plaza and Uran could chase the French rider before being reeled in by the selected yellow jersey group.

The Spanish rider from Team LAMPRE-MERIDA tried to anticipate the top riders in the approach to the Col du Mollard before the battle between the general classification contenders began and before Nibali began his solo attack. Nevertheless, Plaza reached the finish in 13th position, 4'53" behind Nibali.

"I'm having very good feelings, but I'm also aware of the fact that, if I want to achieve good results again, I need to anticipate the top climbers, so today I attacked many times and I paid attention to joining the breakaways," Plaza explained  "My legs give me good feedbacks on the climbs, I succeed in riding with the best climbers, except when the gradients are too high, above 7%. With these premises, I aim to make another interesting performance in tomorrow's stage with stage on the Alpe d'Huez."