Rafal Majka (Bora-hansgrohe) held off the GC favourites to win stage 14 of the Vuelta a Espana atop Sierra de la Pandera, the first especial-rated climb in this edition.
Majka arrived to the finish line with an advantage of 27 seconds over Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana).
“I’m just so happy, not because I won but for my teammates. They trusted in me and did a great job,” said the Polish rider.
“I was very confident. I had good legs, and Patrick Konrad did a really good job with me in the break. Then I knew at 10 k to go that I needed to go at full gas.”
Wilco Kelderman and Ilnur Zakarin finished alongside Nibali and Froome to move up to third and fourth respectively overall as Esteban Chaves lost time to slip down to fifth.
Fabio Aru, winner of the Vuelta in 2015, also lost a further 32 seconds on Froome to fall over three minutes back on the Briton in sixth.
Majka’s chances in the general classification were undone by illness in the first week, which nearly forced the Bora–Hansgrohe rider to abandon the race. But he showed great stamina and climbing power to stay away from a stellar cast of chasers for his first Vuelta stage win.
More brutal climbs await in Sunday’s short and steep 129km stage from Alcala la Real to Sierra Nevada with another special category climb to the finish at 2,500m altitude.
“At the end of a really hard week it’s going to be one of the most decisive stages of this year’s Vuelta,” added Froome.
“It’s at high altitude, it is a key stage in my mind, so it was important to keep something in reserve for tomorrow.”
Vuelta a Espana 2017 – stage 14 results (Écija – Sierra de La Pandera):
| 1 | Rafal Majka (Bora-hansgrohe) | 4:42:10 |
| 2 | Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) | +27” |
| 3 | Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain Merida) | +31” |
| 4 | Chris Froome (Team Sky) | ,, |
| 5 | Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) | ,, |
| 6 | Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) | ,, |
| 7 | Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) | +37” |
| 8 | Wout Poels (Team Sky) | +46” |
| 9 | Esteban Chaves (Orica-Scott) | +57” |
| 10 | Fabio Aru (Astana) | +01’03” |
| 11 | Michael Woods (Cannondale-Drapac) | +01’13” |
| 12 | Pello Bilbao (Astana) | +01’19” |
| 13 | Romain Bardet (AG2R) | ,, |
| 14 | Richard Carapaz (Movistar) | ,, |
| 15 | David De La Cruz (Quick-Step Floors) | ,, |
| 16 | Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNl-Jumbo) | ,, |
| 17 | Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) | +01’43” |
| 18 | Daniel Moreno (Movistar) | +01’49” |
| 19 | Nicolas Roche (BMC) | +02’15” |
| 20 | Sergio Pardilla (Caja Rural – Seguros RGA) | +03’01” |
General classification after stage 14:
| 1 | Chris Froome (Team Sky) | 58:30:47 |
| 2 | Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain Merida) | +55” |
| 3 | Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) | +02’17” |
| 4 | Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) | +02’25” |
| 5 | Esteban Chaves (Orica-Scott) | +02’39” |
| 6 | Fabio Aru (Astana) | +03’09” |
| 7 | David De La Cruz (Quick-Step Floors) | +03’11” |
| 8 | Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) | +03’19” |
| 9 | Michael Woods (Cannondale-Drapac) | +03’23” |
| 10 | Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) | +03’48” |
| 11 | Wout Poels (Team Sky) | +05’16” |
| 12 | Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) | +05’44” |
| 13 | Nicolas Roche (BMC) | +06’09” |
| 14 | Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNl-Jumbo) | +06’38” |
| 15 | Louis Meintjes (UAE Team Emirates) | +08’56” |
| 16 | Sergio Padilla (Caja Rural – Seguros RGA) | +12’46” |
| 17 | Mikel Nieve (Team Sky) | +15’49” |
| 18 | Igor Anton (Dimension Data) | +22’27” |
| 19 | Daniel Moreno (Movistar) | +24’52” |
| 20 | Romain Bardet (AG2R) | +30’05” |
