Rest day? What rest day? It was a distant memory when the peloton woke up this morning to prepare for the 138km queen stage.
I hiked up the first of 6 categorized climbs, which came after less than 10km of riding for the peloton.
Waiting for the peloton.
Romain Sicard and Darwin Atapuma were the first riders to come into view.
But a hungry group was close behind.
Jerome Coppel, Omar Fraile, and Ilia Koshevoy.
Andrey Amador and Ian Boswell led the next group upwards.
The gap between groups was surprising given how early into the stage this was.
Ben King and Moreno Moser.
Geraint Thomas.
Simon Gerrana, Natneal Berhane, Larry Warbasse, and Peter Velits.
Niki Terpstra and Songezo Jim chase the group just ahead of them.
Sergio Henao looks back for his teammates.
The largest group yet.
A few riders were already in the cars.
Gatis Smukulis.
Joe Dombrowski suffered an early crash and had to chase back even to be among the cars.
Meanwhile the peloton kept ascending.
Boy Van Poppel.
The last rider up the first mountain was Sergio Paulinho accompanied by the medical car. Not only is he not the first rider to have been hit by a race moto in this Vuelta (let alone this season), he is the second Tinkoff rider to have been hit! He was forced to abandon shortly after and received 17 stitches to close up the gash in his leg.
The riders hit another categorized climb immediately after descending Beixalis before swinging through the town of Encamp where I caught them a second time.
There was a second or gap between each of the first 9 or so riders before the peloton swooped through en masse. Below: Imanol Erviti.
Ian Boswell.
George Bennett.
Giovanni Visconti in a small group.
Jose Gonçalves.
The peloton.
Rounding the roundabout from both sides.
It's not a great shot, but Alex Howes's shredded left shoulder suggested he had also been in a crash.
Stay tuned for photos from Alto Els Cortals d'Encamp, the final climb of the stage!