Dan Martin took the fight to his Vuelta general classification rivals at the finish of today's stage 11 atop Alto de la Farrapona; attacking deep inside the final kilometre in the hope of snatching a few seconds.
Martin sprinted in to take 7th on the stage, as the breakaway men just about survived up ahead, and his efforts were rewarded by another valuable time gain on Hugh Carthy; his fourth of this race inflicted with a late sprinting attack.
When he jumped in the finale today, Irishman Martin was closely tracked by race leader Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma), 2nd placed Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) and 5th placed overall Enric Mas (Movistar).
However, while those riders were credited with the same time as Martin, Carthy (EF Pro Cycling) couldn't live with the Irish rider's late burst of speed and he trailed in 7 seconds behind the Martin group.
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That gap, while modest, adds some comfort to Martin in 3rd place overall as Carthy is his nearest rival for that final spot on the podium and is now 33 seconds behind Martin.
Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) has continually snatched seconds on the British rider and today's time gain followed another 7 seconds taken out of him yesterday, to add to Martin's similar late muggings of Cathy on stage 1 and stage 3.
However, Carthy got away from Martin on the summit finish on stage 6 and put 35 seconds into him, something the Irish rider will be aware of on the Angliru tomorrow, which will conclude the brutish and short 109km stage.
Today's stage was won by David Gaudu (Groupama FDJ) after the 24-year-old French rider went in the day-long breakaway, which was joined late in the stage by Marc Soler.
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The Movistar rider bridged up to the escape group solo and then attacked from it on the steepest section of the Alto de la Farrapona just inside the final 5km.
Gaudu, usually assigned to helping Thibaut Pinot but one of France's best young riders, was the only one of the escapees who could catch Soler. He then beat him comfortably in the final sprint and was delighted with his first Grand Tour stage win.
Just behind Gaudu, Soler finished at four seconds before the Team Sunweb duo of Michael Storer and Mark Donovan - the latter a highly fancied emerging British 21-year-old - finished in 3rd and 4th at 52 seconds.
Three seconds later in 5th place came the last of the breakaway survivors and the top climber in the race so far, Guillaume Martin of Cofidis.
Astana's Russian rider Aleksandr Vlasov (Astana) snatched 6th place with a late attack from the favourites' group and then came the GC men, all trying to hanging on to the back wheel of Martin.
The result means no change overall; Roglic still leads from Carapaz, with both on the same time, followed by Martin at 25 seconds, Carthy at 58, Mas at 1:54 and then Soler is up four places to 6th, but is a considerable 2:44 back.
So far, Dan Martin not only looks set for the final podium of this race, which would be an incredible achievement, but he may also get the measure of Roglic or, perhaps more likely, Carapaz.
The likes of Carthy, Soler and Mas cannot be counted out for the podium this far out from the final stage in eight days, but all the signs look good for Dan Martin with 11 stages of 18 completed.
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