Taaramäe, of the Intermarche–Wanty–Gobert Materiaux team, was 22.13 behind stage winner Jay Vine of Australia.

The mountainous stage runs from Bilbo in the Basque country, to the mountain of Ascensión al Pico Jano, in Cantabria. The stage was rendered even tougher by the heavy rain and thick fog.

Taaramäe said post-race that: "This is cycling. Heat, rain, cold: you have to deal with everything." 

"No matter what the situation is, you have to get to the finish line, while there are still a lot of days left. My feeling was rather so-so, but I was able to do my job for the team to an extent. There was nothing else here, the end was long, 40 km needed to be pushed for, so I stayed out of the peloton. This 40km is quite a long distance in the mountains."

"Before the penultimate climb I had to help Domenico Pozzovivo and Louis Meintjes, I don't know how they did (24th and 27th respectively – ed.), but some bottles were brought me and I pushed forward a little bit before the last climb."

"I would have stayed behind anyway, even if I didn't want to," he added.

Friday's cycling involves a 190km stage from Camargo to Cistierna, Castile and León, over medium mountains.

The official La Vuelta site is here.

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