On a day when Slovenian cycling dominated the Vuelta a España, Movistar's overall duo of Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde limited their losses while recognizing that Jumbo Visma's Primoš Roglic was the strongest in the race.

Unlike Astana, where an attack by Miguel Angel Lopez did not materialize, Movistar's blue jersey was barely visible in the peloton on the series of small climbs that followed before Los Machucos.

Eventually, Quintana made his first attack midway up the final climb, but was caught and dropped by stage winner Tadey Pogachar (UAE Team Emirates).

Thereafter, Movistar's leading group was unable to respond to the attack by Pogachar and Primoš Roglic (Jumbo Visma), and Quintana eventually finished in fifth place, one place behind Valverde. [Valverde retained his second place overall, while Quintana dropped from fourth to fifth. [Valverde recognized that he would have to endure a beating from the Slovenian duo.

"Both Roglic and Pogachar are the strongest in the race," Valverde said. 'Nairo and I did what we could. We kept our pace, but we knew that if Roglic showed the slightest sign of weakness, they would go for it."

He said.

After the first week in which Quintana and Valverde gained the upper hand against Roglic and Pogachar, Valverde argued that there was still time for the GC pendulum to swing back in their favor. Valverde, however, did not seem truly convinced that this was the case.

"Today we lost time, but on another day others could lose time," Valverde insisted. Or maybe not."

On the plus side, Valverde said he had closed the time gap with Lopez.

"Of course, that's a bonus for us," he said. And of course it's a bonus for us."

Quintana, meanwhile, remained resolute despite Los Machucos' strong indications that the GC tide was becoming increasingly unfavorable in the Vuelta.

"I tried, but at the moment Roglic is the strongest rider in the race," said the 2016 Vuelta a España winner.

"I attacked in the middle of the race because I felt good and I'm the slowest on GC. But I wanted to test myself. Maybe I had something left, but I didn't want people to say I didn't try."

"Now we know how things are going to go and we have to try other tactics like long-distance attacks. There are still some important stages left, but it won't be easy."