One day after his crash in the time trial, Nairo Quintana again hit the deck in today's stage of the Vuelta a Espana and left the race with a broken scapula. Despite the bad luck, new Movistar leader Alejandro Valverde performed excellently and the Spaniard was pleased with the outcome.

Bad luck ended Nairo Quintana's chances in the 2014 Vuelta a España after another crash in the beginning of stage eleven, over 153km from Pamplona to the Cat-1 climb of San Miguel de Aralar. A pile-up after 20km in the stage, in a stressful bunch looking for the day's breakaway, hurled the Colombian to the ground less than 24 hours after his fall in the Borja TT. Suffering pain in his right-hand shoulder, the telephone squad's leader was moved by ambulance to Pamplona's Clínica San Miguel, where X-rays confirmed a displaced fracture in his scapula, which will undergo surgery tomorrow (10am local) by Dr. Jesús Alfaro, orthopaedic surgeon of the Navarrese hospital.

Without Quintana on course, his team-mates rode their hearts out to keep going, as they relentlessly fought to dedicate him a victory on home roads. Amador, Castroviejo and a remarkable Izagirre tried it in the day's breaks - a five-man group, including Kiryienka (SKY) as last survivor, was caught on the foot of the last ascent; Moreno, Herrada, Malori and Erviti worked for it, pushing at the front on the Lizarraga (Cat-3) climb and protecting Valverde during the approach to Aralar; and finally, it was Valverde's turn to try, always doing well into the slopes and following all attacks by the favourites except one: Fabio Aru's (AST), away by six seconds while the Spaniard took 2nd across the line. The six-second bonus over Contador (TCS), together with an additional one by winning the intermediate sprint in Tafalla, take him to just 20" behind in the overall, still in second spot.

The Movistar riders are still on top of the teams' classification - almost 4' ahead of Katusha - as Valverde stays first in the Combination classification following a more calm stage for the Vuelta bunch in one of the few flat stages left: a circuit (166km) in and around Logroño.

“It’s been a good day, in quotes," Valverde said. "Nairo’s crash happened right next to me. We were in about 40th position: Imanol [Erviti], Nairo and I. Several riders crashed in front of us and while I could see it coming and I managed to avoid it, he couldn’t and went down. From here, I send my encouragements to him and my team-mates do it too. He was unlucky yesterday. When such things happen once, it gets repeated many times during the Vuelta.

"Now I’d sign up for things to happen to me until the end of the race as it did today. I wasn’t thinking of sprinting for time bonus but ahead of the sprint I’ve seen Contador moving up and I went behind him.

"Aralar has been hard, also for the kind of asphalt but mostly because we rode fast from the bottom. Aru deserves to win. He’s been great in the climb. I came second and with the time bonus I took, considering that it was a mountainous day and how strong Contador was, to come closer to him at the end of the stage makes me happy.

"I have to lead the team once again. On many occasions I’ve been the team leader and that’s just once more. I don’t like the way we came to this situation but I have to deal with it as it comes. Having Nairo along was better. Now I have to face this alone and keep fighting.

"I already changed my mentality during the race: I was up-front today, I actually was up-front all Vuelta, but having Nairo by my side was way better but it comes down to myself and I'll keep fighting. It will be hard for me to stay away on the climbs, but I must stay strong there, and if I'm able to win some time, the more the better."