MADRID, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Oscar Rodriguez (Euskadi Murias) won the 13th stage of the Vuelta de Espana (Tour of Spain) cycle race on Friday, giving his team and important victory in their first ever victory in a major tour.
Rodriguez formed part of a 32-man breakaway which took around 6 minutes from the main peloton at the start of the high-mountain stage.
Although he started the final climb up the brutal La Camperona mountain (Northern Spain) in third place, he was able to make up ground on Polish climber Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Dylan Teuns, overtaking them on the incredibly tough final climb, which contained ramps of between 15 and 20 percent.
The 174-kilometer stage from Candas to La Camperona, ending at the top of a first category climb is the first of three difficult mountain stages which should go a long way to deciding the eventual winner of the three-week long race.
Rodriguez finished the stage 19 seconds ahead of Majka and with Teuns in third to claim the biggest win of his career.
Overnight leader Jesus Herrada (Cofidis) struggled on the final climb and saw his overnight lead of 3.22 cut by half to 1.42 ahead of Sean Yates (Mitchelton Scott), while Nairo Quintana (Movistar) was able to take six seconds off Yates to move into third place, 1.50 off the lead after his team-mate Alejandro Valverde dropped 13 seconds to Yates over the final meters.
Saturday's 171km stage will take the riders from Cistierna to Las Praeres de Nava; a mountain which includes ramps with gradients of 15 percent and which will again favor the specialist climbers.
