Matteo Trentin of Quick-Step Floors took a sprint victory from Team Sky's Gianni Moscon, capitalising on a solid performance from his Belgian team throughout today's long and relatively flat stage.
Trentin has already won Stage 4 and Stage 10 of the Vuelta before taking the 198km stage from Coin to Tomares, making an impressive defence of the green points jersey.
Chris Froome remains in the red jersey, safely finishing in the main group in an impressive 7th place, having been carefully ferried through the stage by Team Sky.
How the race unfolded
With only a single categorised climb, today would never be a day for drama in the GC, save a highly unlikely twist of crosswind-induced fate.
A breakaway of five riders formed straight out of the neutralised zone, containing Alexis Gougeard (AG2R-La Mondiale), Davide Villella (Cannondale-Drapac), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), Arnaud Courteille (FDJ) and Alessandro De Marchi (BMC).
There was little resistance from Team Sky, and so the break was able to drift out to four minutes before the first categorised climb.
Cannondale’s Davide Villella took the summit points on the climb, before drifting off the breakaway altogether and back to the pursuing pack. A clear sign that Cannondale-Drapac’s Jonathan Vaughters didn’t see the break making it all the way to the finish line.
For the next few hours Quick-Step Floors dominated the front of the peloton, helped a little by Cannondale-Drapac. With 70km to go, the break that had seen around 4.30 time gap at its largest was down to a slim 1.47.
Two-up champions
With 21km to go, De Marchi and De Gendt went clear of the five-man break, powering ahead in a way that seemed to give the peloton some anxiety, given the riders’ strong time-trialling form.
The two riders up front began to invite speculation that they may stay away and bets were on for a possible win from De Marchi, only for De Gendt to be struck by cramp. That left De Marchi going solo.
He pushed alone admirably, passing the 10km mark with only 30 seconds of a cushion to the pack. It seemed imminent that he would be reeled in, and crossing the 6km to go mark the peloton was all back together and the sprinting teams began to move into formation.
Quick-Step set a blistering pace on the front into the stage's chaotic final roundabouts, fragmenting the pack slightly, with numerous riders falling off the group.
Aqua Blue Sport were in a good position, vying for position with Quick-Step Floors in the final 3km, which gave way to a slight incline as Bob Jungels made a notable turn at the front.
Alexey Lutsenko (Team Astana) made an impressive attempt for the long sprint, but suffered a technical with only 1km to go, losing pace on the front group.
Trentin capitalised on a good day from Quick-Step Floors, as he moved decisively out to the front of the sprint in the final few hundred metres, winning by three bike lengths from Sky's Gianni Moscon, with several of the GC contenders sprinting in closely behind him.