At first glance, Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) and Richard Karapas (Ineos Grenadiers) finished the toughest mountain stage of the Vuelta a España with exactly the same result as at the start: the same overall time, with the Slovenians leading.

However, the race was not over.

But if stage victories are determined by team support, Saturday was an overwhelming victory for Roglic. Jumbo Visma showed little sign of opposition all the way to the Alto de la Farapona, keeping a firm grip on the group of favorites to win.

Thus Roglic finished in 10th place after one of the most impressive collective uphill teamwork performances of the Vuelta.

After Ineos Grenadiers helped early on to hold off a breakaway, Jumbo-Vimsa's Leonard Hofstede continued to control the situation almost single-handedly on the second and final climb up San Lorenzo.

Then, aside from a somewhat unexpected brief cooperation from UAE Team Emirates, teammate Jonas Vingegaard, wearing yellow and black, led a subdued but steady pace for the entire 20 km length of the Farrapona.

Just before the finishing gantry, Mikkel Nieve (Mitchelton Scott) made a short dig and the Dane finally broke away from the front, but Sepp Kuss and George Bennett were waiting behind him.

As a result, even without a Dutch rider like Tom Dumoulin, Jumbo Visma was able to hold on to Logric's slim lead on a stage with over 4,600m of climbing.

"It was a hard day in the mountains, but everything was under control.

"Marc Soler (Movistar) is a super strong player and of course he got away with bridging to the break early on, but we really didn't panic. In the end, except for Dan Martin (Israel Startup Nation), nobody was interested in a big attack."

Asked about the riders' protest against the application of the time-split rule at the start, which was neither his fault nor intended and resulted in him taking the leader's jersey, Roglic took a diplomatic stance, suggesting that his interest was in the race.

"I am not the one to tell you how it should be, and I am not a jury [commissaire]," he insisted. 'I respect the jersey and do what I need to do to control the race. Tomorrow is a new day of challenges."

As for the other GC contenders, Saturday confirmed what we have seen so far in the Vuelta and more. The Spanish Movistar team looks the most dangerous, with leader Enric Mas nearly two minutes behind and Soler, despite a day's effort, nearly three minutes on the outer edge of the danger zone on GC.

Meanwhile, nemesis Ineos Grenadiers of Calapaz looks like a distant relative of the all-winning team that won seven stages and the overall despite losing leader Geraint Thomas in the recent Giro d'Italia.

On stage 11, while Australian Cameron Wolff did a great job on the early climbs, Calapaz's two strongest mountain domesticians in the competition, Andrei Amador and Dylan van Baarle, were between 5km and 4km remaining on the Farrapona. Both fell, and Chris Froome, who had done an excellent early stage job so far, was out of the main group almost before the start of the Farapona.

As a result, the Ecuadorian riders were isolated and the combined strength of Jumbo Visma dashed any hope of an attack by the others. As if that wasn't enough to demoralize his rivals, Jonas Vingegaard, who spearheaded Jumbo-Visma's ironclad defense on the Farapona climb, claimed that he was not giving 100% of himself.

"I wasn't at my best," Vingegaard told ITV after the race. "I just kept the pace that I knew I could keep for a long time, and nobody attacked me.

"We were just running until someone attacked us. It was a pretty hard stage and I think they are saving something for tomorrow's Angliru stage."

"The riders are definitely super strong.

As for how he expects to fare in Angliru, where Calapaz and his other rivals will have to attack unless Roglic risks a substantial win in Tuesday's time trial, Roglic admitted that he has no prior knowledge of the climb

"I've watched some videos and it's super hard. I've never done a climb this steep before.

Compared to the lack of any GC contenders on Farapona, Roglic said he expects a lot of attacks." He predicted that "I'm sure they will attack one by one at the top of the 'Angliru'" and added with humor that "it will be very cool and nice for the people watching on TV."