The gap grew to the peloton exponentially and the stage win was up front. Hence the fight for it began with 48 kilometers to go as Victor Campenaerts attacked with Wout van Aert and
Mauro Schmid following and keeping a gap over the rest of the group. Marc Soler brought it back, but then the group split with eight riders remaining up front.
UAE attacked plenty times in the penultimate climb but didn't manage to distance the rest; and in the descent Jay Vine and Brandon McNulty crashed. Five remained in front at the bottom of the final climb: Van Aert, Marc Soler, Mauro Schmid, Sam Ooman and Michael Woods; as Movistar pushed the pace in the peloton.
As the steep final five kilometers began, Mauro Schmid attacked in the front group. Right after Michael Woods hit the front and dropped the Swiss rider and in these very steep gradients the Canadian was dancing on the pedals. He built a strong gap and flew to his third-ever stage win at the Vuelta, an accomplished goal for
Israel - Premier Tech. Mauro Schmid was third and Soler finished third on the day.
In the peloton there were serious differences. BORA set a nuclear pace at the bottom of the climb and quickly dropped Ben O'Connor. Roglic, Enric Mas and Sepp Kuss went off the front. But those who tried to follow the Slovenian then cracked with Roglic however presenting himself very strong.
Roglic crossed the line first out of the GC riders over 10 minutes back. Mikel Landa was the second, 35 seconds back; Enric Mas lost 58 seconds and O'Connor (who let Felix Gall go) lost almost 2 minutes in the final ascent.