Tyler Farrar emerged from a bunch sprint to take victory on the 11th stage of the Vuelta a Espana on Wednesday.
Farrar, who had four top-five finishes in this year's Vuelta but until today had not managed a victory, hit the front of the pack early in the sprint and held enough of an advantage over his rivals to cross the finishing line with his arms raised in celebration.
The 25-year-old American completed the 200-kilometre ride from Murcia to Caravaca de la Cruz in a time of five hours, 11 minutes and 10 seconds, pushing Belgian Philippe Gilbert into second place with Italian Marco Marcato third and Inaki Isasi of Spain fourth.
Vuelta favourite and gold jersey wearer Alejandro Valverde was 14th today and the Spaniard retains his seven-second lead over Australian Cadel Evans at the top of the overall classification.
There were plenty of attempted breakaways at the start of the day but it was not until around the 40km mark that a significant break was formed, and by the 70km mark the trio of riders - Amets Txurruka, Johnny Hoogerland and David Moncoutie - held a lead of almost 10 minutes.
The difference between the leaders and the chasers was still over eight minutes at 120 kilometres, but with the Caisse d'Epargne, Liquigas and Rabobank teams leading the peloton, the gap quickly started to disappear and within 20km it was down to less than three minutes.
The three pacesetters still held a slight advantage following the climb over Campo de San Juan, but that had gone by the 155km.
Francaise des Jeux rider Remy Di Gregorio then made a solo breakaway, which lasted for about 15km before the main group caught him to set up the stage for the sprinters, which ended up with Garmin's Farrar taking the honours.
Tomorrow is a rest day in the Vuelta, with Friday's stage 12 seeing the riders race 179km from Almeria to Alto de Velefique.
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