Caravaca de la Cruz, Spain  - American Tyler Farrar on Wednesday won the 11th stage of the Tour of Spain, with local hero Alejandro Valverde keeping the golden jersey of the overall leader.

The Garmin-Slipstream rider managed to outsprint the chasing pack at the finish, taking the victory from Belgian Philippe Gilbert, with Italian Marco Marcato third.

The American took five hours 11.10 minutes for the 200 kilometre-long stage from Murcia to Caravaca de la Cruz.

The stage with two climbs was dominated by three riders who broke away early on. Amongst them was Frenchman David Moncoutie, who took over the lead in the mountain classification.

They were caught by the chasing peloton with 50 kilometres to go.

Frenchman Remy di Grigorio and German Linus Gerdemann then tried a breakaway, but were also unsuccessful.

The results see Valverde keep his overall lead from Cadel Evans, with the Australian seven seconds behind. Third-placed Robert Gesink is third, 36 seconds behind.

The Vuelta, which finishes on September 20, has it's second rest day on Thursday before the riders compete in a mountain stage from Almeria to Alto de Velefique on Friday.  dpa