Richard Carapaz wrestles red jersey back from Primoz Roglic

Richard Carapaz regained the overall leader’s red jersey from Primoz Roglic in the Vuelta a Espana, opening up a 10 sec advantage after Sunday’s stage 12 up the punishing Alto de l’Angliru, as Hugh Carthy pulled off a heroic solo victory.

Briton Carthy pulled clear of Aleksandr Vlasov and Enric Mas in the final kilometre just as the climb began to ease and accelerated towards the finish line to claim his first stage win on a grand tour.

Carthy crossed the line 16 sec ahead of the Russian and the Spaniard, who came second and third, while Carapaz also finished 16 sec down in fourth but missed out on bonus seconds by failing to get on the podium.

Ecuadorean Carapaz pulled off a series of attacks on Roglic over the final 2km and the Slovenian dug deep at first before running out of energy as the gap widened, but he managed to limit the damage once the brutal climb lessened towards the summit.

The 109km stage featured five categorised climbs and culminated up the Alto de l’Angliru, widely regarded as the toughest ascent in pro cycling.

Sunday’s route is the shortest non-time-trial stage of the Vuelta but undoubtedly the most punishing, featuring gradients of up to 24% in the final 3km.

The riders will take a second rest day on Monday, with the action resuming on Tuesday with an individual time trial.

The Vuelta, which has been shortened from its usual 21 stages to 18, finishes next Sunday in Madrid.

Reuter