Herrada (Cofidis) and Teuns (Bahrain-Merida) were part of an 11-rider breakaway on the 199km stage from Mora de Rubielos before dropping their companions and fighting for the victory together on the way to Ares del Maestrat.
“I was targeting this stage because I know the start and the final climb pretty well," Herrada said. "This victory is for my brother [Jose Herrada], who came close to taking the victory yesterday. It’s also for my family and my partner, who came to the stage; and for the team, obviously.
"It was hard to get the break going. Halfway through the stage, we didn’t know if we were gonna make it. When Teuns accelerated, I stuck to his wheel and I saved energy for the sprint. And I got the win.
"To win a stage and to wear the leader’s jersey are both beautiful. But this victory was my goal for the year, to get my first Grand Tour win. And I’ve done on the stage I was targeting! I can go home with peace in my mind but I’ll be looking for more opportunities and they’ll come.”
Teuns replaced Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) as race leader after all the key general classification contenders finished together over five minutes behind the breakaway group.
“I already had the red jersey on my mind before I came to La Vuelta," Teuns said. "Today I raced for the stage and in the final climb I went all in with 4km to go. It would have been nicer to also win the stage but I’m happy with La Roja.
"I was unlucky that one guy [Herrada] was strong enough to follow me, and then I didn’t have the legs to sprint in the last 300m.
"We have to see how I can defend the jersey," Teuns said. "Tomorrow we have a pretty hard and steep final climb. I saw yesterday the GC riders are really strong.
David de la Cruz (Ineos) moved up to second in the overall standings followed by Lopez and the rest of the title contenders including Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma), Movistar's Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde and Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott).
The crash had implications for the general classification battle with Rigoberto Uran (EF Education First), sixth overall before the stage, the major casualty.
The mass pileup came halfway through the stage and also claimed previous race leader Nicolas Roche (Sunweb), Victor de la Parte (CCC) and Uran's team-mate Hugh Carthy, all forced to abandon with injury.
Tejay van Garderen (EF Education First) who was in the break, also crashed on the stage but continued to the finish.
Dylan Teuns is the new leader of the Vuelta a España. (Getty) Source: Getty
