Tom Dumoulin climbed to 9th on an epic stage 11 of the Vuelta and is now third in the general classification, 30” behind the new overall leader Fabio Aru. Mikel Landa won the stage from the breakaway.

A breathtaking amount of six climbs on the menu during the queen stage of the Vuelta a España. With 148km one of the shortest stages in line but with almost 5,000 altitude gain feared by many riders as some called it the ‘heaviest stage ever’.

During the uphill start the race directly exploded and 19 riders got away. On the descent from fourth climb of the day Tom Dumoulin had to let go the other GC contenders to ride his own pace up, but on the penultimate climb he came back.

At the bottom of the finishing climb, the Alto Els Cortals d’Encamp Fabio Aru (Astana Pro Team) attacked and Dumoulin again decided to choose his own rhythm. Member of the early breakaway Mikel Landa (Astana Pro Team) stayed clear and won the stage. After an incredibly strong stage, Dumoulin crossed the line in 9th and is now 3rd in the general classification, 30” behind the new overall leader Aru.

“I was suffering a lot, but can be satisfied with my performance from today,” said Tom Dumoulin. “I was on the limit at the moment Astana accelerated on the fourth climb, but was still there at the summit. Because I had difficulties closing my jacket, I lost some positions, which turned out to be very costly afterwards because the group split in the descent. I had to chase and wasted energy with that, which is too bad because I was capable of reducing the time loss on the final climb. We had to ride very hard on the 2nd category climb to come back on the GC leaders. That was a mistake. 

"I give myself seven out of 10 today. It was good but not special. I didn't surprise myself like in the stage that I won but I still think I did very well.

"I don't know if I proved anything. It just feels good to be up there with the best on this very hard day. Actually I was surprised. I imagined it would be even harder. I was not as hard as I thought it would be. I was quite nice. I've had harder days in my life."

“I fought for it but the others were a little bit stronger today. I am showing progress on these kinds of climbs too. I am still third overall and will not give up too easily. There are some difficult stages coming up where I will lose more time, but I still want to go for it.

"That [the time trial on stage 17] is still my biggest chance of a second victory here. And also a possibility if I’m still in GC to take some time back on the important contenders. But first we’re getting some more mountain stage this week so I still have survive those then we’ll see after the rest day."