Despite the 229km stage being the third consecutive day in the mountains, Deignan made sure he was part of the 18-rider attack and tried to stay with eventual stage winner Mikel Nieve (Euskaltel-Euskadi) for as long as possible.
He eventually faded and was caught by Alberto Contador and the other overall contenders but finished an impressive 14th, only 6:40 behind Nieve.
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Stephen is the most experienced member of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. He has been Head of News at Cyclingnews since 2022, before which he held the position of European editor since 2012 and previously worked for Reuters, Shift Active Media, and CyclingWeekly, among other publications.
