The big victor of the day was Britain’s Simon Yates as he finished over a minute ahead of Froome and Quintana in fifth on the stage to move up to fourth overall.
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For a second straight day, Quintana and nearest challenger Chris Froome refrained from attacking one another with the tough, and potentially decisive, high mountains looming.
Contador attacked after just six kilometres and Quintana followed as they formed a 14-man breakaway and had two teammates each for company.
“We opened gaps and the final climb was a race against the clock to leave Froome behind”. I wasn’t sure if I could do this, but in the end I kept fighting. “This morning I felt ideal”.
Quintana and Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) formed an alliance and launched several early attacks before forming a breakaway group within the first 10km of the 118.5km stage.
Simon Yates rode himself into Vuelta a Espana contention with a stirring display on Saturday as he came home 39 seconds behind stage 14 victor Robert Gesink.
Orica-BikeExchange’s Esteban Chaves remains third, a further 20 seconds behind Froome, having finished the stage 47 seconds ahead of Froome after riding most of the stage with the 2016 Tour de France victor. “I knew that he was looking for time and if I sat in, it was general classification for Quintana and the stage for me”.
Chris Froome insists the race for overall victory at the Vuelta a Espana can change in an instant.
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The race has a rest day on Tuesday before resuming on Wednesday with a 177.5km 17th stage ending with a summit finish at Camins del Penyagolosa in Llucena – one of five remaining stages. “I did a good Tour of Burgos and I was confident in my sprint”. This probably sounds the death knell of his ambitions to sign a top-10 in the three major Tours in the same season after finishing third in the Giro in May and 6th in the Tour de France in July.
