The first real mountain climb in the 2015 Vuelta a España looked like to a story usually seen in modern Grand Tours: a winning break - crowned by Dutchman Bert-Jan Lindeman (TLJ) from a five-man escape formed after a few kilometers - and plenty of looking from the main GC contenders on stage seven, 191km between Jódar and Capileira (Cat-1), where intense heat and hard work from the Movistar Team caught some of the favourites unprepared.

The pace by Sutherland, Ventoso and Erviti until the foot of the ascent, plus good work from Rojas, Amador and a remarkable Moreno and Visconti on the hardest slopes, progressively reduced the main bunch until a mere 20 riders stared the final kilometer together. There, an attack by Fabio Aru (AST) - who finished 7" ahead of the rest of favourites - and successive accelerations from Majka (TCS) and Nairo Quintana dropped Moreno (KAT), Landa (AST) and even Chris Froome (SKY), 27" down on the main group containing Valverde (7th) and Quintana (8th). The duo now sits in fifth and seventh overall, with Esteban Chaves (OGE) still in red.

Saturday will see both Valverde and Rojas smiling alongside their Murcia people on stage eight, 182km from La Puebla de Don Fadrique to Murcia, over roads steadily descending towards sea level and an intense finish over two climbs of the Cresta del Gallo (Cat-3).

"We put some considerable time into Froome, though there's still much left in the race. It could have happened to anyone, even myself, with such intense heat, and more than a physical thing, I think Froome's loss was caused by that," Quintana said. "It was a really difficult day with those temperatures. Anyway, as Aru put some seconds into us, we can say we were hunting and hunted at the same time.

“Everybody felt about the same. Some recovered time and others lost some. I think Froome suffered with the heat, which was terrible and inhuman today. We stood the suffering well. Sometimes it's hard but I think it is possible to race in this heat. I think low temperatures are worse.

"We're still in the mix, not losing much time, and we hope to change our strategy a bit to improve this result, profiting from our two chances to put some time into the rivals. At the moment, pretty much everyone is riding around our team.

“We’ll have to alter our tactics a bit, because our rivals are basing their strategy on what we do. There are two of us, and we have to start racing on the attack - one day one of us, one day the other - in order to start gaining time on our rivals.”

"I didn't see Froome neither doing well nor bad, basically because I didn't see him during the whole stage; we were always riding on the front," Valverde said. "It's good to put some seconds into him, but the Vuelta is still to start, really.

"The first huge climb is always demanding and the heat we suffered today added an impact to that. Fortunately, we responded well and both Nairo and I are in a good place. We still have two chances to win and we will try to take advantage of that in the upcoming stages."