However, the Tour de France champion and 2016 Olympic time trial bronze medallist was the only rider to clock under 47 minutes, finishing with a time of 46 minutes and 33 seconds to beat Jonathan Castroviejo’s mark, the Movistar rider coming in 44 seconds adrift.
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After riding the time trial of his life en route from Xàbia to Calp in south-east Spain, Chris Froome goes into Saturday’s penultimate mountain stage in the Vuelta a España with an outside chance of becoming the first British rider to take the three-week Spanish Tour. “We have an advantage in our favor and now we need to defend it to Madrid”, Quintana said.
Race leader Quintana (Movistar) negotiated the many roundabouts on the fast approach to Gandia without any mishaps to retain the red jersey.
Quintana said that he will ride defensively and leave Froome to try all the tactics, insane or not, he can to dislodge him.
“We saw the same with Jens Keuekeleire on stage 12, and today it was my turn to give it a go, and it was really incredible”.
“If I don’t have a good time trial, then I’ll have a good opportunity on Aitana to strike back”.
“He has more than one minute but we are going to keep on fighting”, Froome said.
“We’ll see [what happens] tomorrow and I’ll speak with my team-mates tonight”.
Nairo Quintana was able to comfortably retain his healthy lead in the Vuelta a Espana as Magnus Cort claimed a landmark victory on stage 18.
“He’s a great rider, and his team was at a very good level, and they always made trouble for me”.
Froome – the time-trial bronze medallist at last month’s Olympic Games – was the emphatic victor of stage 19, a 37 kilometre dash from Xabia to Calp.
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Three-time Vuelta victor Alberto Contador moved past Esteban Chaves into third place at nearly four minutes off Quintana’s lead.
