It might take years before the Vuelta a Espana lives another stage as tough as the one of today, Wednesday September 2nd, through the 138 km from Andorra La Vella to Cortals d’Encamp. Five categorized climbs and a 5.500-meter overall altitude proved an extreme test for the riders, even putting some of the favorites on the back foot. It was a night of celebration for Astana, who took the stage with Mikel Landa out of the breakaway, and conquered the leader’s jersey withFabio Aru, runner-up on the day.

Colombia-Coldeportes’ Rodolfo Torres was among the strongest in the queen stage of the Spanish race: the 28-year-old from Busbanzà was 13th on the finishing line, just ahead of fellow Colombians Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and Darwin Atapuma (BMC), after staying in the group of the strongest from the tough Alto de la Gallina ascent, when the main bunch got gradually reduced down to less than 20 riders.

The Escarabajos tried to get into the day’s breakaway from the beginning, with Fabio Duarte authoring the very first acceleration of the day, but in the end a sixteen-rider escape got clear, with no representatives of the team guided by Sports Directors Valerio Tebaldi and Oscar Pellicioli.

Both the lead group and the peloton went reducing through a stage with practically no flat sections, and the race got to the foot of the final ascent to Cortals d’Eincamp with five man in the lead – Landa, Nelson Oliveira (Lampre-Merida), Ian Boswell (Team Sky), Pawel Poljanski (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Romain Sicard (Europcar) – with 2.30 on the group of overall leader Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) counting less than 20 riders and with Rodolfo Torres in it. From the group was missing Chris Froome (Team Sky), who suffered a 8.41 delay at the end of the day, eventually waving goodbye to every chance of a Tour-Vuelta double.

Mikel Landa took advantage of the first ramps of the last climb to drop all of his former breakaway companions, while his Astana’s teammates were forcing the pace in the GC men’s group to set up an attack by Fabio Aru, initially followed by Joaquin Rodriguez and Dani Moreno (Katusha). Torres kept on riding at a regular pace, eventually coming back on many riders including Nairo Quintana, who struggled in the second part of the climb.

“It was a brutal stage, even though I think last year Giro d’Italia’s one with Gavia and Stelvio was actually a little bit tougher," Rodolfo Torres said. “I held on with the strongest while still suffering from pains in my chest when breathing due to the virus that struck me a few days ago. That is why I tried not to respons to accelerations, and in the end the final result shows I am not that far out there, and that the goal of a stage win is a concrete one.”

“Today’s result will help Rodolfo to restore his morale after suffering mightly for several days," Sports Director Oscar Pellicioli explained. "Today it was our intention to put a man in the break, but the beginning of the stage was hard and tricky, and we could not deliver. It was a pity, but the Vuelta is just at the halfway stage: we still have a lot to say in this Vuelta.”

Tomorrow comes the 12th stage, Escaldes-Lleida (173 km): the profile might favour the few sprinters left in the race, but a breakaway could still have a good chance to contest the stage win.