User:Lib2know/Vuelta a España: Mikel Landa wins demanding mountain stage

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On Wednesday Mikel Landa won the 11th stage of the Vuelta a España cycling race in Encamp, Andorra in 04:34:54 hours.

His Astana teammate Fabio Aru followed 1 minute and 22 seconds later and became number one overall, taking the red jersey. Third was Ian Boswell (+1:40, Team Sky), fourth Daniel Moreno (+1:57), and fifth Joaquin Rodríguez (+1:59, both Team Katusha). The latter improved to the second position overall (+0:27) in front of the former leader Tom Dumoulin (+0:30) on three.

This mountain stage started in Andorra La Vella and led back and forth through the valleys and over the passes of the small Pyrenees country. Though the distance was only 138 km, the race was said to be very demanding. Six classified climbs totalling 4,950 meters couple with and 3,960 metres of descending to leave hardly any flat passages. Joaquin Rodríguez called the route "dramatic". His improvement on the overall classification he worked out to leadership on Monday.
Chris Froome previously predicted it would be the "the hardest stage ever". During the stage he was getting injured in a crash which caused him to end the season and give up on his start at the world championship.

There are a couple of professional cycling competitions in Andorra this week. The nation hosted the Vuelta a España for four days: coming in on Monday for the resting day, followed by yesterday's mountain stage. The 12th stage started today in Andorra la Vella, returning to Lleida, Spain. At the same time the Union Cycliste Internationale MTB (Mountain Bike) World Championship started on August 31st with qualifiers. Championship events in cross country, downhill, and trial mountain biking are set to continue until Sunday.