David de la Cruz gave Etixx-QuickStep its third stage victory of the Vuelta a España, also parlaying the day's successful breakaway into the overall race lead. It was the Spaniard's first professional win.
De la Cruz was the best placed rider in the 12-man breakaway, and escaped with Dries Devenyns (IAM Cycling) on the Alto del Naranco, the final climb of a five-mountain day. Devenyns suffered a miss-shift at a critical moment and De la Cruz leapt away to take out a spectacular home soil victory.
He now leads the overall by 22 seconds on Nairo Quintana and his Movistar teammate Alejandro Valverde by 41 seconds.
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"It way my objective today but to be honest, I wasn’t thinking about the race leadership towards the end. I was just thinking about winning the stage," De la Cruz said. "It was very hard to ride with Devenyns because he was very hard to beat. I can’t believe that I won.
"I felt good sometimes, other times I didn’t feel so good and I didn’t think that I would have enough to finish it off, with so many good riders in the break. I thought to myself, ‘let’s try and go to the end’ and I won. I’ve been close a few times and I’ve not won - but today I got the stage and the race lead, so let’s see how long we can keep it."
Devenyns was disappointed not to have added to his team's success in the race, but said de la Cruz was simply stronger.
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