The Spaniard was part of a 12-man move during the 164 kilometre medium mountain stage from Cistierna to Alto del Naranco.

Spain’s Luis Leon Sanchez, Italy’s Moreno Moser and the Belgian trio of Jan Bakelants, Dries Devenyns and Thomas De Gendt were among the riders leading the way.

The latter was predominately concerned with collecting King of the Mountains points throughout the duration of the undulating stage.

The other two Belgians, Bakelants and Devenyns, opted to launch attacks in the final 25km, with the pair working together.

Eventually they were reeled in by the breakaway, but Devenyns, De La Cruz and France’s Alexandre Geniez upped the pace again and moved away.

It would be De La Cruz who was able to celebrate the stage win, after breaking his rivals in the closing kilometres to finish solo in a time of 3hr, 47min and 56sec.

Spain’s Alejandro Valverde led the main field over the line, 2:56 down on the winner, with the Movistar rider ending on the same time as Britain’s Chris Froome and Colombia’s Nairo Quintana.

The Movistar team had been on the front of the peloton for much of the stage, but they appeared content to allow for their leader Quintana to move out of the race lead, in order to prevent them from having to defend the jersey in the coming days.

It allowed De La Cruz to take the red jersey, with the Spaniard, the first home rider to win a stage in this year’s race, lying 22 seconds ahead of Quintana in the standings.

Valverde is 41 seconds off the overall race lead in third, while Froome is a further eight seconds down in fourth.

The general classification contenders will come to the fore tomorrow with a potentially crucial 188km mountain stage from Lugones to Lagos de Covadonga.