Vuelta Stage 16: Alberto Contador takes huge step towards overall as Chris Froome closes gap on second

Alberto Contador has this afternoon taken a big step towards what would be his third overall victory in the Vuelta a Espana, riding away from Team Sky's Chris Froome ahead of the final kilometre of the climb to Lagos di Somiedo to take a convincing win on Stage 16 of the 69th edition of the race.

The Tinkoff-Saxo rider and Team Sky's Chris Froome had got away from rivals including Movistar's Alejandro Valverde, Joaquin Rodriguez of Katusha and Astana's Fabio Aru, overhauling earlier attacker Alessandro De Marchi of Cannondale, who finished third.

That denied the Movistar rider, who had started the day second overall, the chance to gain what could have been valuable bonus seconds, but while Froome got a time bonus for finishing behind Contador, a quarter of a minute down, Valverde recovered to hang on to second place by just 3 seconds ahead of the Sky man prior to tomorrow's second rest day.

The fight for places on the general classification was preceded by an actual exchange of blows between Omega Pharma-Quick Step rider Giancluca Brambilla, and Tinkoff-Saxo's Ivan Rovny.

Both had been in the day's break and were thrown off the race before the stage ended, with commissaires perhaps aware of the potential issues had Brambilla, who was by then off the front with De Marchi, gone on and won the stage.

Reaction

Contador insisted after the stage that the Vuelta had "not yet" been decided. He said: "Let’s say this is an important step in order to distance myself from all my rivals. There are still 5 days of racing, lots of things can happen. My rivals are not totally out of contention even though I’ve extended my lead. And I can still have a bad day. I have to keep going day by day."

Speaking of repeated attacks by Froome this afternoon, he said: "Sometimes it doesn’t really show but I can assure you his changes of pace are strong. I’ve come to be used to this duel, I know how he proceeds and I’m happy my legs could sustain it perfectly today.

"Our preparation is different than it was at other moments, the Dauphiné for instance, but I can tell you the race level is strong. We’re producing very high watts. We climbed La Farrapona at a very high average."

Froome said: “The team did a fantastic job today. They really rode hard up today. Even Peter [Kennaugh] giving up his own chance in the breakaway to come back, I couldn’t have asked for more.

"I gave everything I had in the final. I couldn’t drop Alberto. I just pushed on the same and we’ve still got a week of racing ahead so I think at least I’ve moved up a little bit on the general classification. But Alberto is going to be a hard one to beat.

"As I said from the beginning, I came to this race a little bit on the fresh side, having dropped out of the Tour with injuries. I’ve been trying to build up during the race and I’m really happy with how it’s been going so far. Coming into the last week, that’s where I wanted to be.”