Tarazona, Spain – Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara won the 11th stage of the Tour of Spain on Wednesday, a 38.8km hilly time trial, while Italy's Vincenzo Nibali regained the overall leader's red jersey.
Radioshack's Cancellara, a specialist in this discipline, paced his effort in the early uphill section of the time trial near Tarazona in northwestern Spain and then powered to the finish, completing it in 51 minutes, 37 seconds ahead of Germany's Tony Martin of Omega.
Italy's Domenico Pozzovivo of Ag2r finished the first and only time trial of this year's Tour in third place, 1min 24sec behind the winner.
Astana's Nibali, who clocked the fourth fastest time at 1:25, took over the race leader's red jersey from American veteran Christopher Horner of Radioshack.
Horner completed came home in 54:01 and is now fourth in the overall standings, 46 seconds behind Nibali, the 2010 champion.
Ireland's Nicolas Roche moved up to second at 33sec after finishing the time trial in sixth while 2009 winner Alejandro Valverde finished seventh on the stage and is now third overall, on the same time as Horner.
Thursday's 12th stage is a 164.2 kilometre ride from Maella to Tarragona. With only one categorised climb just beyond midway and a flat final 20km, it should favour the sprinters. – Sapa-AFP