Three minutes and 18 seconds off the winning pace set by three-time Tour de France victor Chris Froome of Great Britain, the Nelson professional moved into 11th in the general classification and just 50 seconds off the next best rider with two stages remaining.
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The Team Sky rider finished 44 seconds clear of his nearest rival, Movistar’s Jonathan Castroviejo, while Quintana was two minutes and 16 seconds off the pace – leaving the Colombian more vulnerable than he may have anticipated ahead of Saturday’s penultimate stage.
“Until we reach Madrid, we can not say the race is over”, Quintana said.
The other Kiwi in the race, Orica BikeExchange rider Sam Bewley finished 158th in the time trial to be 142nd overall.
“Froome was flying”, Quintana told Spanish TVE. “We have an advantage in our favor and now we need to defend it to Madrid”, Quintana said.
Today sees a 200.6km flat stage from Requena to Gandia, with Froome’s hopes resting on Friday’s 37km time trial and Saturday’s 193.2km run from Benidorm to Alto de Aitana.
Quintana, already the victor of the 2014 Giro d’Italia, appears more confident every morning when he steps off Movistar’s blue team bus to the mass of fans. I gave it a go today and it was wonderful.
Instead, he will rely on Friday’s time trial to rescue his bid for overall victory.
France’s Pierre-Roger Latour won the stage in a time of five hours 19 minutes 41 seconds. I have had a pretty rough season; not much was working as I wanted.
Quintana had said early in the race he needed at least a three-minute lead to hold off Froome s superior time trialing ability, but is hopeful of losing little more than a minute. “I left it all out on the road”, he said.
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Quintana’s compatriot Esteban Chaves is set to claim a podium finish after making a break 44km from a summit finish to replace Alberto Contador in third.
