France's David Moncoutie spent 5 hours in a breakaway at the Vuelta a Espana on Saturday, much of it solo, to win the 107-mile stage that ended with a mountain top finish at Sierra Nevada.
While Alejandro Valverde followed soon enough to retain his overall lead, Garmin-Slipstream's Tom Danielson of the US finished so far back that he lost his 4th place in the General Classification and virtually fell out of contention to 9th overall, 6:52 minutes behind the leader. (CyclingNews reports that Danielson is one of several Garmin team members to come down with an illness on Saturday.)
Australia's Cadel Evans was another Valverde rival who suffered a loss Saturday, dropping to 4th overall, 1:23 behind. He started the day in 2nd, just seconds behind Valverde. VeloNews reports that Evans had a puncture on a climb, then had trouble getting it changed.
Robert Gesink of Rabobank climbed to 2nd overall and Ivan Basso is ranked in 3rd place, 1:02 behind.
The peloton faces another mountainous stage on Sunday.
Stage 13 and General Classification results at Vuelta a Espana website.
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