The Ineos Grenadiers rider Richard Carapaz attacked to win stage 12 of the Vuelta a España, a 192.7km mountain ride from Salobreña to Peñas Blancas on Thursday, while the race leader, Remco Evenepoel, recovered from a crash to retain his red jersey.
Carapaz was out of the general classification battle at the start of the stage but the Olympic champion dropped his breakaway companions after his attack with just under 2km remaining.
The Ecuadorian went on to seal his first Vuelta stage win, banging his handlebars in celebration as he crossed the line nine seconds ahead of Wilco Kelderman (Bora-Hansgrohe), while Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) finished third.
Evenepoel slid out on a sweeping right-hand bend 50km from the summit finish at Peñas Blancas but he controlled his rivals on the final ascent and sprinted to the line ahead of all the general classification contenders.
Before Thursday’s stage, Bahrain Victorious’ Santiago Buitrago and Boy van Poppel of Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert were ruled out after testing positive for Covid-19.
QuickStep-AlphaVinyl were without the world champion, Julian Alaphilippe, after he dislocated his right shoulder in a crash during stage 11 on Wednesday.