Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) cut in half Jesus Herrada’s Vuelta a Espana lead in a 13th stage won by Oscar Rodriguez (Euskadi-Murias).
Rodriguez dominated the difficult climb up La Camperona to clinch the victory in the 175-kilometer stage from Carreno to Sabero in northwestern Spain.
The Spaniard broke away in the final kilometer to cross the line 19 seconds in front of Rafal Majka and 30 seconds ahead of Dylan Teuns.
“I can’t believe I’ve taken a professional win, let alone a stage at the Vuelta,” Rodriguez said. “I didn’t believe I was going to win until the very end, and I still can’t believe it.”
Herrada’s lead of more than three minutes – which he earned on Thursday – was cut to 1 minute, 42 seconds, after a great mountain charge by Yates.
Nairo Quintana had an even better run up the mountain and was the first contender to reach the finish, moving into second place overall, eight seconds behind Yates. Alejandro Valverde dropped to fourth overall, 12 seconds behind Yates.
Riders will face another demanding mountain stage on Saturday, a 171-kilometer (106-mile) ride from Cistierna to Nava.
Vuelta a Espana 2018 – stage 13 results (Candás. Carreño – La Camperona):
| 1 | Oscar Rodriguez (Euskadi-Murias) | 4:17:05 |
| 2 | Rafal Majka (Bora-hansgrohe) | +19” |
| 3 | Dylan Teuns (BMC) | +30” |
| 4 | Bjorg Lambrecht (Lotto Soudal) | +38” |
| 5 | Laurens De Plus (Quick-Step Floors) | +43” |
| 6 | Merhawi Kudus (Dimension Data) | +01’00” |
| 7 | Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) | +01’12” |
| 8 | Pieter Serry (Quick-Step Floors) | +01’21” |
| 9 | Edward Ravasi (UAE Team Emirates) | +01’25” |
| 10 | Benjamin King (Dimension Data) | +01’27” |
| 11 | Maxime Monfort (Lotto Soudal) | +01’32” |
| 12 | Sergio Henao (Team Sky) | ,, |
| 13 | Joey Rosskopf (BMC) | +01’39” |
| 14 | Sander Armee (Lotto Soudal) | +01’43” |
| 15 | Eduard Prades (Euskadi-Murias) | +01’46” |
| 16 | Fabio Felline (Trek-Segafredo) | +01’55” |
| 17 | Alex Aranburu (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) | +02’09” |
| 18 | Cristian Rodriguez (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) | +02’13” |
| 19 | Ben Gastauer (AG2R La Mondiale) | +02’16” |
| 20 | Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) | +02’32” |
General classification after stage 13:
| 1 | Jesus Herrada (Cofidis) | 54:50:19 |
| 2 | Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) | +01’42” |
| 3 | Nairo Quintana (Movistar) | +01’50” |
| 4 | Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) | +01’54” |
| 5 | Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) | +02’23” |
| 6 | Rigoberto Uran (EF Education First-Drapac) | +02’33” |
| 7 | Ion Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida) | +02’35” |
| 8 | Tony Gallopin (AG2R La Mondiale) | +02’40” |
| 9 | Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) | +02’44” |
| 10 | Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-hansgrohe) | +02’47” |
| 11 | Enric Mas (Quick-Step Floors) | +03’00” |
| 12 | David De La Cruz (Team Sky) | +03’34” |
| 13 | Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) | +03’51” |
| 14 | George Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo) | +03’53” |
| 15 | Benjamin King (Dimension Data) | +04’10” |
| 16 | Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) | +04’13” |
| 17 | Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates) | +04’19” |
| 18 | Rafal Majka (Bora-hansgrohe) | +04’45” |
| 19 | Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) | +05’02” |
| 20 | Gianluca Brambilla (Trek-Segafredo) | +05’26” |
