Chris Froome (Team Sky) extended his lead in the Vuelta a Espana as Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) won stage 8 into Xorret de Catí.
Alaphillippe delivered a third Quick-Step victory, winning from a large breakaway of 21. The Frenchman outsprinted Jan Polanc (UAE Team Emirates) and Rafal Majka (Bora-hansgrohe) to take the stage.
Froome showed he remains the man to beat overall as the Briton aims to become just the third man to win the Tour de France and the Vuelta in the same year.
The Sky rider left all of his general classification rivals, bar Alberto Contador, trailing on the category-one climb up Xorret de Cati before a short descent to the finish line to extend his lead over Esteban Chaves to 28 seconds.
“I certainly didn’t need to attack but I am good to take advantage of it whilst my legs are feeling good,” a confident Froome told Spanish TV station Teledeporte.
“The most important thing for me was to try and keep pushing trying to open up the time gaps and we’ll see where we are after fist rest day.”
Italian duo Vincenzo Nibali and Fabio Aru were in the group alongside Chaves, 17 seconds behind Froome, to fall 53 seconds and 1min 06sec behind the race lead respectively.
Despite a return to form in the past few days, three-time Vuelta winner Contador remains over three minutes behind in his final race before retirement after a poor start.
Sunday’s ninth stage contains another category one climb to the finish of the 174km ride from Orihuela to Cumbre del Sol.
Vuelta a Espana 2017 – stage 8 results (Hellín – Xorret de Catí):
| 1 | Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) | 4:37:55 |
| 2 | Jan Polanc (UAE Team Emirates) | +02” |
| 3 | Rafal Majka (Bora-hansgrohe) | ,, |
| 4 | Serge Pauwels (Dimension Data) | +26” |
| 5 | Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) | +28” |
| 6 | Michel Kreder (Aqua Blue Sport) | +32” |
| 7 | Maxime Monfort (Lotto Soudal) | ,, |
| 8 | Bart De Clercq (Lotto Soudal) | +34” |
| 9 | Alberto Losada (Katusha-Alpecin) | +37” |
| 10 | Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-hansgrohe) | +01’04” |
| 11 | Daan Olivier (Team Sunweb) | +01’06” |
| 12 | Loic Vliegen (BMC) | +01’17” |
| 13 | Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) | +01’27” |
| 14 | Chris Froome (Team Sky) | ,, |
| 15 | Jesus Hernandez (Trek-Segafredo) | ,, |
| 16 | Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain Merida) | +01’44” |
| 17 | Fabio Aru (Astana) | ,, |
| 18 | Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) | ,, |
| 19 | Wout Poels (Team Sky) | ,, |
| 20 | Esteban Chaves (Orica-Scott) | ,, |
General classification after stage 8:
| 1 | Chris Froome (Team Sky) | 32:26:13 |
| 2 | Esteban Chaves (Orica-Scott) | +28” |
| 3 | Nicolas Roche (BMC) | +41” |
| 4 | Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain Merida) | +53” |
| 5 | Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) | +58” |
| 6 | Fabio Aru (Astana) | +01’06” |
| 7 | David De La Cruz (Quick-Step Floors) | +01’08” |
| 8 | Adam Yates (Orica-Scott) | +01’18” |
| 9 | Michael Woods (Cannondale-Drapac) | +01’41” |
| 10 | Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) | +01’57” |
| 11 | Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) | +02’03” |
| 12 | Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) | +02’13” |
| 13 | Jan Polanc (UAE Team Emirates) | +02’29” |
| 14 | Simon Yates (Orica-Scott) | +02’34” |
| 15 | Wout Poels (Team Sky) | +02’40” |
| 16 | Sam Oomen (Team Sunweb) | +02’42” |
| 17 | Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) | +03’10” |
| 18 | Jetse Bol (Manzana Postobon) | +03’12” |
| 19 | Louis Meintjes (UAE Team Emirates) | +03’23” |
| 20 | Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) | +03’40” |
