Nairo Quintana was the big loser in today's Vuelta a Espana time trial as the Colombian hit the deck hard on a descent. Luckily he escaped any serious injuries but as he lost lots of time, he is now ready to work for his teammate Alejandro Valverde who performed excellently in the race against the clock.

A crash which seriously diminishes his chances... and could have been even worse. Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team) suffered an unfortunate incident in the first individual time trial of the Vuelta a España, a demanding, 37km parcours from Vera de Moncayo to Borja. The Colombian crashed in the opening section of the descent of the Alto del Moncayo (Cat-3), which he got through well in the mix against the other race favourites. Blows to his left foot and knee as well as all over his back did not cause serious harm to Quintana, yet kept him around two minutes on the ground before he recovered, got back on his bike and covered with immense courage the rest of the TT. Quintana finished just under four minutes behind the new race leader, Alberto Contador (TCS), who ranked fourth in the day behind Martin, Urán (OPQ) and Cancellara (TFR).

Quintana's bad luck, down from first to eleventh overall at 3'25", was slightly compensated by a great performance by his team-mate and friend Alejandro Valverde. The Spanish time trial champion bounced back from own disappointment after the last TT in the Tour de France and finished in 8th spot, just 22" behind Contador and more than half a minute ahead of Chris Froome (SKY), after a magnificent 2nd place in the first intermediate check which helped him riding strongly in the less favourable, downhill finale.

The Spaniard is now in 2nd overall (+27") and will fight alongside Quintana and his team-mates to get back into more optimistic ways as the race reaches the squad's home in Navarra on Wednesday. The slopes of San Miguel de Aralar (Cat-1; 11km at 8%) will take stage eleven to an end after 153km also including the Alto de Lizárraga (Cat-3.)

"I was feeling great in the uphill, but at that point of the descent my bike simply did not brake enough," Quintana said. "Before the turn, I was tightening my shoe, which was a little bit loose, but I think that didn't have an effect on my crash. The thing is that I kept braking for quite long, but it wasn't enough because the bike didn't stop, and I crashed.

"Fortunately, I could avoid having a bigger crash and I did not hurt myself really badly. My left ankle hurts and I also have blows all over my body, but I hope it's nothing serious. This is cycling. I lost some time and I might be switching to help out Alejandro so we can conquer the overall podium.

"Crashes happen in cycling. We must overcome them. My intention is to recover and continue the race looking at trying to finish on the podium. As for the consequences of my crash, we’ll see how I feel tomorrow morning.”

“I'm happy with myself - we're staying in second place, really close to Alberto - but it's a bittersweet taste with Nairo's crash," Valverde siad. "I didn't know anything, I was told when I finished. It's awful to have such a crash, when you're in the lead, clocking good times...

"Being the two of us closer in the overall would have been better for our interests, but the only important thing now is that Nairo is still racing - I'm sure he will recover well, even though I'm told it was quite a blow. We'll keep fighting to do great in this Vuelta.

"This was a time trial like the ones I used to make when I felt well. When conditions are normal, I am usually close to the main specialists. There were two good phases for me, plus one not so good. The section before the top of the climb, really good. The first part of the descent also went well, but then, to the rest of the descent, I struggled to get back into a good pace. With 12k to go, I started to feel better - I did superb in the last 7k.

"Losing so few seconds to Alberto and finishing ahead of Froome and Purito is fantastic. I know tomorrow's finish: it's a demanding climb, really tough, and I just hope legs respond well. It seems like it's going to be good weather up there and I hope it plays into my favour."