De la Cruz into red after stage 9 win on Alto del Naranco

De la Cruz proved very much the strongest of a 12-man group which animated the 164.5km stage from Cistierna to Oviedo to deliver his Etixx-QuickStep team its third win of the Vuelta.

The 27-year-old's first professional victory also saw De la Cruz move into the leader's red jersey after the pack of main favourites came home almost three minutes down after an undulating day in the saddle in northern Spain.

A year after breaking his leg during the Tour of Poland, De la Cruz now stands atop the overall standings of his national tour with a 22-second gap over Quintana, who was happy to lose the red jersey ahead of Monday's all-important stage to Lagos de Covadonga.

Quintana's Movistar team-mate Alejandro Valverde is in third place on GC at 41 seconds while Britain's Chris Froome (Team Sky) sits comfortably in fourth place a further eight seconds adrift.

An exciting finale to the short but sharp stage saw De la Cruz drop fellow escapee Dries Devenyns (IAM Cycling) in the final kilometre after the Belgian appeared to suffer a mechanical issue with his gearing.

Devenyns cut a disconsolate figure as he came home for second place 27 seconds down on De la Cruz and six seconds ahead of Italy's Moreno Moser of Cannondale-Drapac.

Spain's Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) took fourth place while Switzerland's Mathias Frank (IAM Cycling) completed the top five ahead of the remnants of the break, who arrived in dribs and drabs before Gianluca Brambilla (Etixx-QuickStep) and dependable veteran Valverde - who else? - led the main favourites over the line 2:55 in arrears.

"It was my objective today but, to be honest, I wasn't thinking about the red jersey towards the end. I was just thinking about winning the stage. It was very hard to ride with Devenyns because he was very hard to beat. I can't believe that I won," an ecstatic De la Cruz said after his win.

"I felt good sometimes, other times I didn't feel so good and I didn't think that I would have enough to finish it off, with so many good riders in the break. I thought to myself, 'let's try and go to the end' and I won. I've been close a few times and I've not won but today I got the stage and the race lead, so let’s see how long we can keep it."

De la Cruz made no exaggeration when describing the break as full of "good riders". With Belgian Thomas De Gendt - a former winner on both the Stelvio and Mont Ventoux - battling for KOM points against Frenchman Alexandre Geniez - a double Vuelta stage winner - there were certainly many subplots.

De Gendt won that particular showdown and will wear the blue polka dot jersey on Monday's decisive stage after securing maximum points over the first three categorised climbs, including the Cat.2 Puerto de San Isidro.

The break - which also included quadruple Tour de France stage winner Sanchez, Swiss all-rounder Mathias Frank (IAM Cycling) and Belgian live-wire Jan Bakelants (Ag2R-La Mondiale) - had taken some time to get significant leeway before the peloton eventually dropped the chase.

A maximum lead of five minutes gave De la Cruz hope of snaring the red jersey - but a succession of third-category peaks in the final third made things touch-and-go for the Spaniard, even after he bounded clear with Devenyns on the descent of the penultimate climb some 12km from the finish.

De Gendt led the pursuit but was swept up after Spain's Pello Bilbao and Belgian Dylan Teuns (BMC) upped the tempo behind.

Meanwhile, Peter Kennaugh (Team Sky) and Omar Fraile (Dimension Data) jumped clear of the peloton on the steepest section of the Alto del Naranco before a flurry of activity saw them brought back after veteran Sammy Sanchez (BMC) attacked the main favourites.

Despite trading blows all the main favourites finished with the same time on a day which belonged to De la Cruz and his Etixx-QuickStep team - whose latest scalp came after Gianni Meersman's opening week brace of victories.

The final stage before Tuesday's welcome first rest day is a 188.7km slog which concludes with back-to-back ascents of the Alto del Mirador del Fito and the Mirador de la Reina en route to the infamous Covadonga lakes.