Mikel Landa has won stage eleven of the 70th Vuelta a España.
A 138km stage, which was described by Chris Froome as the hardest Grand Tour stage he had ever faced with more than five thousand metres of climbing, was from Andorra La Vella to Cortals d'Encamp.
Six major climbs were in store for the riders who rolled out of Andorra, through the streets of the capital of the Principality.
The sun had come out after early morning rain and the roads were dry as Chris Froome crashed into a timber barrier as the Colombia riders on the front started on the first climb.
Romain Sicard (Europcar) and Darwin Atapuma (BMC) briefly were ahead before being joined by King Of The Mountains leader Omar Fraile, Coppel and Oliveira.
Fraile took the points on the Collada de Beixalis climb as the five out front took a twelve second lead.
The race came back together so this time, Oliveira tried again, before being joined in a sixteen man group along with Landa, Erviti, J Moreno, Fraile, Plaza, Poljanski, Howson, Atapuma, Montaguti, Sicard, Losada, Coppel, Hardy, Verona and Boswell, which has a 1.09 lead with 112.3kms to go.
George Bennett, Goncalves and Cherel joined this lead group on the category one Col d'Ordino climb but this time, it was Ruben Plaza who beat Fraile to the points as the gap went out to two minutes.
Imanol Erviti (Movistar) then sneaked off with just over eighty kilometres left before starting on the Coll de la Ribassa with a lead of 4.30, which he took the points on.
He was caught by the main body of the break after getting out ouf shape and Astana's Mikel Landa took over on the front as the gap went out to 4.54.
Back down the road, Chris Froome was struggling and was in a group that was nearly a minute down the peloton.
With forty kilometres to go, Landa was in a group with Sicard, Boswell, Poljanski, Fraile and Atapuma which were 4.18 ahead of the peloton and 6.02 ahead of Froome's group.
Fraile took the points on the Gallina whilst Froome sought help from a doctor on the road for a left shoulder injury.
There was no Atapuma in the front group on a stage designed by Joaquin Rodriquez who lives in Andorra, as the leaders started on the category two climb.
There had been concern about how close some of the motor bike riders were getting and Sergio Paolini was struck by one and was forced to abandon and went to hospital where he had seventeen stitches.
With 17.8kms to go, five in Sicard, Landa, Oliveira, Poljanski and Boswell were out in front with a two minute lead over Tom Dumoulin and the group of favourites including the former race leader Esteban Chaves.
Landa led the leaders over the Category Two Alto de la Comella and the five pushed on towards the sixth and final climb with a two minute lead.
Mikel Landa, who is leaving Astana at the end of the season, attacked the lead group with 8.6kms to go with Nelson Olivera chasing.
Fabio Aru, Rodriquez and Moreno put some distance between them and the red jersey group.
Sicard joined them and went after Landa but the 25 year old Astana rider was away and won in a time of 4.34.54.
Fabio Aru was second to take over the lead of the race with Ian Boswell third, Moreno fourth in 1.56 and Rodriquez fifth in 1.59, followed by Majka, Nieve, Chaves, Dumoulin and Rosa.
Chris Froome finished 8.37 down.