La Vuelta: Glory for Gaudu in Stage 11 as Roglic defends red jersey

Madrid (IANS) David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) picked up the biggest win of his career in Stage 11 on the Alto de la Farrapona on a day of stalemate between red jersey Primoz Roglic and his general classification rivals in La Vuelta.

Gaudu zipped clear of fellow escapee Marc Soler (Movistar) on the home straight to open up his Grand Tour account in style in the Asturias mountains. Spaniard Soler, already a winner in this race in Stage 2, crossed the line four seconds adrift.

Team Sunweb duo Michael Storer and Mark Donovan came home 52 seconds in arrears for third and fourth, ahead of Frenchman Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), who extended his lead in the polka dot jersey competition on a day which featured four first-category climbs of increasing height and difficulty.

Russia's Aleksandr Vlasov (Astana) surged clear of the streamlined main pack in the final kilometre to take sixth place just before Ireland's Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) led a select quartet featuring Roglic in red, the green jersey of Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) and white jersey Enric Mas (Movistar) over the line just over a minute down on the winner.

With their mind firmly focused on Sunday's showdown on the Alto de l'Angliru in the race being broadcast on Eurosport network, Slovenia's Roglic and Ecuador's Carapaz stay tied for time at the top of the standings, with triple stage winner Roglic in red by virtue of his superior aggregate stage results.

By leading the main GC favourites home for seventh place, Martin moved above Carapaz in the points classification - and so it will be the Irishman who assumes Roglic's green jersey on Sunday's queen stage.