A five-man breakaway group comprising Fumiyuki Beppu (Trek – Segafredo), Quentin Jauregui (AG2R La Mondiale), Louis Vervaeke (Lotto-Soudal), Pierre Rolland (Cannondale) and Mattia Cattaneo (Lampre – Merida) led for much of the day.
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Spain’s Jonathan Castroviejo finished second, 44 seconds behind Froome, with Sweden’s Tobias Ludvigsson third a further 40 seconds back.
Britain’s Froome lagged behind through the final ascent, but was able to catch up with Quintana and avoid losing more time. “We have an advantage in our favor and now we need to defend it to Madrid”, Quintana said.
Three-time Vuelta victor Alberto Contador moved up to third overall by finishing eighth on the day to leapfrog Esteban Chaves.
“It’s a really big dream come true for me”, said Nielsen.
“We’ve got a way of racing and an approach and we’ll stick to that for now, and we’ll focus on the time trial”.
“We’ll see (what happens) tomorrow and I’ll speak with my team-mates tonight”. It’s going to be tough to beat him.
“Nairo has a good team around him”.
Silvan Dillier (BMC), who was looking to end up among the best, saw his hopes vanish into thin air after a crash in the final u-turn. After 24km, the Kenyan-born Briton was 1min 32sec ahead of Quintana, who eventually finished 11th on the stage.
At the first intermediate check point, there is already a clear hierarchy between the main favourites.
Quintana eventually lose 2:16 to Froome, while podium contenders Alberto Contador of Spain and Chaves were 1:57 and 3:13 down respectively.
Contador is fourth in the general standings, four minutes and two seconds behind Quintana.
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Cummings has a 49-second lead heading into Saturday’s double stage in Bristol which features a 15km time trial in the morning and a 90km criterium on the same course in the afternoon.
