2018 Vuelta a España Stage 11 Results & Recap
Stage 11 of the 2018 Vuelta a España is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
De Marchi solos to win\nBy Clara Beard
Alessandro De Marchi (BMC Racing Team) flew to his third career win at the Vuelta a Espana after dropping Jhonatan Restrepo (Katusha Alpecin) in the final five kilometres of the longest stage of the tour. The Italian timed his attack right to win by 28 seconds ahead of Restrepo after more than 100 kilometres in the breakaway with 19 riders. Franco Pellizotti (Bahrain Merida) finished third at 59 seconds back.
“This victory is special,” De Marchi said. “I had been chasing it for quite some time and it’s a relief I expressed on the finish line. Sometimes, you feel like you’ve lost it. Now I feel like I’m back at my best. I couldn’t describe the whole day, it was extremely intense. Sometimes I was dropped off the back, then I was on the move. I just thought about giving the maximum and then see how it goes. In the final climb, I joined Restrepo and then I attacked but it was too far so I waited for him and decided to try again in the final four kilometres. I knew there was this uphill section. I only had one shot, the legs were empty. It was all in the mind. If I wasn’t able to drop him there it would have been very hard in a sprint. I think I would have been second. Now I can take a bit easier in the peloton in the next days and I want to try again in the last week, but I’ll be more relaxed.”
The overall classification remains unchanged, with Simon Yates in the red jersey, one second ahead of Alejandro Valverde (Movistar).
“I never thought I would lose the red jersey,” Yates said. “The first 100km were very intense and chaotic. We expected a lot of attacks. Then Movistar started to control because they had to. We don’t have enough people to do it, it was up to them. Of course, Pinot was dangerous but we couldn’t control everything. We had to take some risks and in the end, I’m still in the red. The legs felt good, without any problem, and now I’m looking forward to the real mountain stages.”
The pace of the peloton started off intensely high, with the first 100 kilometres almost averaging 50 kilometres an hour. This didn’t stop the attacks from happening, it just stopped them being successful. Finally, a group of 19 riders escaped including Pellizotti, Nans Peters (AG2R-La Mondiale), Omar Fraile (Astana), De Marchi, Nicolas Roche, Dylan Teuns (BMC Racing Team), Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe), Léo Vincent (Groupama-FDJ), Tiesj Benoot (Lotto Soudal), Jack Haig (Mitchelton-Scott), Winner Anacona (Movistar), Ryan Gibbons (Dimension Data), Pierre Rolland (Education First-Drapac), Restrepo, Sergio Henao (Team Sky), Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo), Sergio Pardilla (Caja Rural-Seguros-RGA) and Mikel Bizkarra (Euskadi-Murias).
The large group opened up a gap of more than four minutes while Movistar took over the pace in the peloton. In the latter part of the stage, Mollema attacked and shattered the group, but was reeled back in with 35 km to go. De Marchi and Restrepo attacked on the final climb and got 30 seconds on their chasers.
With less than five kilometres to go, De Marchi attacked Restrepo and held off the Colombian to the finish.
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