Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), the 39-year-old reigning world champion, took his 12th career Vuelta a España stage win on Friday. [Valverde dominated the three overall contenders on Alto Mas de la Costa, one of the steepest summit finishes of this year's Vuelta a España, pushing Primoš Roglic (Jumbo Visma) into second place and race leader Miguel Angel López (Astana ProTeam) and teammate Nairo Quintana (Movistar) by six seconds.

In the process, Valverde won the second stage of Movistar's 2019 Vuelta to move into third place overall.

The victory was Valverde's 128th of his career, his fifth of 2019, and his 12th at the Vuelta a España.

Just 16 seconds behind the overall leader, Valverde denied the possibility of winning the Vuelta for the second time in a decade, rhetorically telling reporters, "I am almost 40 years old, there is no way I can win."

"We have to be realistic. We have a long way to go and Roglic will certainly improve his time in the time trial.

Valverde denied that Quintana had any trouble when he attacked during the final climb, saying instead: "He is a great rider. He was amazing, spectacular and really aggressive.

Valverde personally congratulated Quintana after the finish to indicate that the Movistar leadership issue may have finally been settled, and he insisted that "Eres Grande!"-and that both riders had GC cards to play.

Valverde explained that the team's strategy was for Quintana to try to pull away while he stayed behind until the finish in case the Colombian failed to clear, and then he would go for the stage win. He then went for the stage win.

Quintana's repeated accelerations on Alto Mas de la Costa allowed the winning quartet of Lopez, Roglic, Quintana, and Valverde to pull away from their rivals. The race will likely be contested between these four with Rafau Mayka (Bora-Hansgrohe) nearly two minutes behind and all still within 30 seconds of each other.

As he did after stage 6, Valverde was adamant that he and Quintana were singing from the same sheet in the battle for this year's Vuelta win.

"We didn't need to silence anyone and we have no problem with what we are doing," Valverde concluded.