Chris Froome managed to narrowly extend his overall lead at the Vuelta a Espana following a hard-fought battle on stage six.
Froome matched Alberto Contador’s attacks on the last categorised climb of the stage and came into the finish at Sagunt with the other GC contenders shortly behind stage winner Tomasz Marczynski (Lotto-Soudal).
“That’s the hardest day of the Vuelta so far”, Froome exclaimed. “It didn’t stop all day, the attacks and for us having Sanchez infront we had to pull really hard and keep the break really close.
“The team was fantastic today and I want to thank my teammates that I’m still in red today. I think it was a tough stage and a lot of people spent a lot of energy.”
“Contador was very impressive and its still a very long race and I’m sure he’s going to keep animating the stages to come.
“Even though he’s lost some time on GC he’s still a dangerous threat and he’s shown how strong he is, how tenacious he is and he is going to keep fighting all the way until the end of this Vuelta.”
