Chris Froome recalls his first day in red jersey at the Manzaneda: "It’s definitely a day that stood up in my career"

The riders conquered the Montaña de Manzaneda on Thursday with Pablo Castrillo securing a rather upset victory. Twelve years ago, the Galician climb wrote maybe an even more important story in the cycling history. It was there were Chris Froome spent his first day in the lead of overall classification of any Grand Tour before he went on to win seven of them in next years.

"I remember my first ever day in the red jersey and in the lead of a Grand Tour," Froome told the Vuelta website. "Manzaneda is a tough climb! It goes up in different steps. The speed reduces every time we hit another steep part then it flattens then it’s steep again. I remember the main section was quite rolling and we were still a big bunch, but it exploded in the final two or three kilometers when it became steeper again."

Froome took the red jersey in a 47km time trial the day prior and didn't get to enjoy the lead for too long, as he was asked by his team to pull at the front for team leader Bradley Wiggins who took the jersey from Froome at the top of Manzaneda.

"I had been asked to do the team job," Froome recalled, "so I was pulling as much as I could for about 10km till 2km to go when the race went away from me. I handed the jersey to Bradley as per the plan." The stage was won from the breakaway by France’s David Moncoutié and Sky Procycling eventually changed their plan to give the leadership to Froome in the third week of La Vuelta 2011.

"I’ve had better moments of shining during that Vuelta," Froome continued, "at Peña Cabarga for example. At Manzaneda, I had done so much work at the front that I was not able to be there in the finale [he finished 27 seconds after the Wiggins group that also included defending champion Vincenzo Nibali]. But it’s definitely a day that stood up in my career. I’ve got the jersey somewhere, I’ve not put it up yet but I’ll do it one day."

In a turn of events, Froome only got to wear the red jersey again in 2017 despite being the winner of 2011 edition. The Brit was only declared champion of 2011 Vuelta after the previous winner Juan José Cobo was disqualified in a retrospective.