Australian Ben O'Connor suffered on the final climb, but held on to his leader's red jersey at the Vuelta a España.
However, the 27-year-old saw his advantage cut by losing almost 40 seconds, as three-time winner Primož Roglic continued to eat into the Australian's lead.
Roglic, who won the Vuelta from 2019-21, made his move on the final climb of another lumpy 166km stage on Wednesday to get within 3 minutes, 16 seconds of O'Connor.
Local hope Enric Mas also moved closer and is less than four minutes from the lead.
"Yes, you can say that I had a hard time," Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale rider, O'Connor said.
"It was a steep finish and there's quite a few guys that were super strong today. It's not the worst case scenario.
"I'm not naive, there's plenty of guys who are really dangerous in this race. I've had better days and that's the story of La Vuelta for myself so far.
"Good day, average day, good day, average day … Hopefully I can change that and be good every day."
Irishman Eddie Dunbar won his first grand tour stage victory on stage 11, which ended in a brutally sharp climb in the mountains around Padrón.
Having almost quit the sport after a litany of crashes over the past 12 months, Dunbar decided to hang in there and claimed a fitting reward, breaking away in the final kilometre to claim a memorable and emotional win.
Dunbar, from team Jayco AlUla, was marred by crashes and injuries over the last year and had thought about ending his cycling career.
"It's incredible," the 27-year-old Dunbar said.
"Since the Vuelta last year, I think I had seven or eight crashes. And of course, physically, that takes its toll, but also mentally.
"I thought numerous times that I might not have a future in the sport, because of the crashes and the injuries I've had."
He said his knee injury at this year's Giro d'Italia almost meant the "the nail in the coffin of my cycling career."
"But I have incredible support around me," he said.
"My girlfriend is forever there around me and I have an incredible group of friends and family. They back me so much as well. It's been a long time coming but to repay all of them today means a lot."
Thursday's 12th stage will be a hilly 137.5-kilometre route that will end with a long climb into the city of Manzaneda in northwest Spain.
AP/ABC
