Vuelta a Espana 2016: Stage 8 Results, Overall Standings and Highlights

Sergey Lagutin of Katusha finished solo to claim Stage 8 of the 2016 Vuelta a Espana, while Movistar's Nairo Quintana took the overall lead with a late move, distancing the likes of Team Sky's Chris Froome and Alberto Contador of Tinkoff.

Lagutin broke free from his companions in the final kilometre of the Alto de la Camperona, a monstrous climb that has sections with a gradient of over 19 per cent.

All eyes were on the battle for the red jersey, however, where Quintana dropped his fellow favourites and Contador surprised everyone by making up ground on Froome and Movistar's Alejandro Valverde, despite struggling with the effects of his crash.

Here's a look at the stage results, courtesy of the Inner Ring:

The current standings:

Recap

Saturday's stage was all about the Alto de la Camperona, the first nightmarish uphill finish of this year's Vuelta. While the lead-up to the climb was mostly flat, the climb itself was an absolute monster. Race Radio shared this image:

Given the rough profile of the stage, the stage-winner was always likely to come from an early break, with the favourites expected to hold still until the final sections of the climb.

The breakaway was a large one, consisting of 11 riders. Among them were Lagutin, Zico Waeytens (Giant-Alpecin), Pieter Serry (Etixx-QuickStep) and Scott Thwaites (Bora-Argon 18), and their lead quickly grew to over 10 minutes.

JAIME REINA/Getty Images

Waeytens was the first man to try his luck with an attack in the scorching heat, but the chasers quickly caught him, with Jhonatan Restrepo of Katusha pacing the group. Lagutin and Serry bridged the gap as well, and it was the Russian who outlasted his companions, finishing 10 seconds ahead of the rest.

As reported by Cycling News, the veteran was ecstatic to finally grab his first major stage win:

"

Finally the dream came true. I’ve been dreaming about it since I was little, to win a stage of a Grand Tour like the Vuelta, so when this happened I couldn’t believe that it happened to me. I’m 35 years old and at some point I thought that it was probably it but I still hoped that it was for me.

We don’t have our team leader (Joaquim Rodriguez) so we’re all free to do what we want and there are plenty of chances. We are still competitive and we’re looking forwards at this Vuelta.

"

But the real battle took place behind the leaders, as the top favourites for the general classification came head-to-head for the first time. Movistar and Sky paced the peloton, which quickly thinned out ahead of the steepest sections near the top, but the two teams couldn't drop Contador.

JAIME REINA/Getty Images

Esteban Chaves of Orica-BikeExchange and BMC's Darwin Atapuma soon started to struggle, before Quintana did what fans have been waiting for him to do all summer long―he attacked Froome head-on near the top.

NYVelocity said what many were likely thinking:

Quintana dropped Froome with his explosive attack and rode himself into the red jersey, but even more impressive was Contador's recovery.

As you can see in this video from the Vuelta's official Twitter account, the Spaniard was covered in tape and bandages, but he still rode away from Froome and even closed the gap to Quintana a bit:

Andrew Hood of VeloNews loved it:

Contador still has a lot of catching-up to do, but the course plays in his favour. Stage 9 will be a bumpy ride, and the favourites may not be willing to engage with an eye on the next day―Monday's ride up the Lagos de Covadonga ahead of a rest day will surely produce even more fireworks.