Winner Lastras shows benefit of day's rest

With the iBanesto.com team leader Francisco Mancebo having already abandoned the Tour of Spain, his team-mate Pablo Lastras is taking full advantage, claiming his second stage win in three days' racing yesterday.

The Spaniard won stage 11 between Alcobendas and Collado Villalba, proving that his victory in Cordoba on Sunday was no flash in the pan. After a time of 3 hours 55 minutes and 54 seconds for the 166.1 kilometre stage through the sierras west of Madrid, Lastras said he had Tuesday's rest day to thank. The 26-year-old said: "I ate and slept a lot, and that meant I was strong."

Following a fast descent from the category one Navacerrada climb, Lastras broke away with 5.5km to go, together with Haimar Zubeldia of Spain and Klaus Moller of Denmark. The trio managed to fend off the peloton in the technical finale through the streets of Collado Villalba and, after Zubeldia led the final charge for the line, Lastras overtook the Euskaltel-Euskadi rider to win by more than a bike length.

A struggling Moller finished third, two seconds adrift, with the peloton of 17 riders, containing the overall leader, Oscar Sevilla, and his Kelme rival Aitor Gonzalez, nine seconds back.

Lastras, whose biggest win prior to his two victories in this year's Vuelta was a stage of the Giro last year, said: "I can't get over the high mountains, but after we reached the summit of Navacerrada I knew the battle between the overall favourites was over, so I seized my chance when Zubeldia and Moller attacked. After seeing my family and supporters from my village close to the summit of Navacerrada, I thought I couldn't disappoint them."

There were no significant changes in the overall placings as Sevilla retained the yellow jersey, although Roberto Heras and fellow general classification contender Iban Mayo attacked on the Navacerrada climb. Mayo, fourth overall, managed to break away briefly twice, his most dangerous effort coming with 1,500 metres left to the summit, but Sevilla and Heras responded quickly.

After the Italian Gilberto Simoni led the two dozen leaders over the summit of Navacerrada, reinforcing his hold on the climber's jersey, Lastras, Moller and Zubeldia broke away on the outskirts of Collado Villalba to dispute the stage win. "It's true they tried to make life difficult for us, but the team managed to keep everything under control," Sevilla said.

Sevilla has his team-mate Aitor Gonzalez only second behind and said: "Hopefully in the final week we are even further ahead of the rest on general classification than we are now so we can fight the overall victory out between us in the friendliest of ways. Everybody is saying this race will be decided on the Angliru climb [stage 15] but in fact this Tour of Spain is being hotly disputed every day, not just in the mountains."

The Kazakh rider Alexandre Vinokourov, who was sixth overall, abandoned with a fever.