Hugh Carthy climbed to his maiden Grand Tour stage win on the daunting Alto de l'Angliru and Richard Carapaz took a 10-second lead in the Vuelta a Espana on Sunday.
EF Pro Cycling rider Carthy went on his own with just over a kilometre to go on the gruelling 109-kilometre 12th stage from La Pola Llaviana and went on to celebrate the biggest victory of his career.
Carapaz, Enric Mas and Aleksandr Vlasov crossed the finishing line 16 seconds after British rider Carthy, who moved up to third in the General Classification.
Primoz Roglic was unable to react when Carapaz made a move late in the stage, and so the INEOS Grenadiers rider will start the final week as the man to catch.
Jumbo-Visma's Roglic had spent three days with the same time as Carapaz, but it was the Ecuadorian who took the initiative towards the end of a testing day, taking in three category-one climbs.
Slovenian Roglic appeared to feel the strain on the steeper sections and finished fifth on the day, with Dan Martin dropping behind Carthy into fourth in the GC standings.
Breakaway riders Guillaume Martin and Luis Leon Sanchez were reeled in with 11km to go on the fearsome Angliru and it was Carthy who had enough in the tank to go it alone and pull off a magnificent win.
STAGE RESULT
1. Hugh Carthy (EF Pro Cycling) 03:08:40
2. Aleksandr Vlasov (Astana) +00:16
3. Enric Mas (Movistar) +00:16
4. Richard Carapaz (INEOS Grenadiers) +00:16
5. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) +00:26
CLASSIFICATION STANDINGS
General Classification
1. Richard Carapaz (INEOS Grenadiers) 48:29:27
2. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) +00:10
3. Hugh Carthy (EF Pro Cycling) +00:32
Points Classification
1. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) 147
2. Richard Carapaz (INEOS Grenadiers) 104
3. Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) 100
King of the Mountains
1. Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) 76
2. Richard Carapaz (INEOS Grenadiers) 30
3. Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) 27
What's next?
A rest day awaits, before Carapaz will look to extend his lead on Tuesday in a 33.7km individual time trial which will be mainly flat by the sea before a 1.5km steep climb to finish on the Mirador de Ezaro.