Chris Froome lost nearly three minutes on overall leader Nairo Quintana as Gianluca Brambilla won stage 15 of the Vuelta a Espana.
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Thanks to the time bonuses awarded at the finish, Froome moved up to just 54 seconds back on red jersey holder Quintana in the overall standings, with Valverde third overall at 1:05.
Colombian Johan Esteban Chaves remains third, a further 20 sec behind Froome, having finished the stage 47 seconds ahead of Froome after riding most of the stage with the Briton.
Quintana and three-time Vuelta victor Alberto Contador formed part of an early breakaway group on the short, hilly 118.5km stage from Sabinanigo to Aramon Formigal and were never caught by Froome as the Tour de France champion finished 2min 37secs back on Quintana.
A superb ride on stage 15 at the Vuelta a Espana moved Nairo Quintana over three minutes clear of his nearest general classification rival. “There haven’t been, and there won’t be”, Quintana said.
The three-time Tour de France victor finished the stage 18th – 2:37 after Quintana – and the damage could have been greater if not for the help of Astana leading the chase of the breakaway.
“I’ve got a lot of respect for that time trial, although hopefully it won’t be too unfavourable and I will play a defensive game on the mountain stages to come”.
Some 41 riders broke away 15 kilometres into the race, and the gap on the peloton reached five minutes near the top of the first climb, the Col Inharpu, but they were reeled back in on the decent.
Victory in the 2014 Giro d’Italia is Quintana’s only Grand Tour win to date, but he tends to perform better in the third week of the gruelling 21-stage events. I didn’t even know who was on my wheel and I knew that it was a unsafe bet, but look at what happened.
As Quintana forged on ahead, although the Colombian was finally beaten by Italy’s Gianluca Brambilla at the finish, Froome was the biggest loser, ceding over two and a half minutes.
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And Ducker is targeting more glory on the streets of central Madrid in Sunday’s race finale.
