Alejandro Valverde sprinted away from an exhausted peloton to win the sixth stage and take the overall lead in the Tour of Spain, with Chris Froome and Alberto Contador following him across the line.
Dutchman Pim Ligthart and Lluis Mas Bonet of Spain staged a breakaway for the vast majority of the 167.1km stage from the Mediterranean coast into the mountains, but they were caught with the finish almost in sight.
The peloton was down to about a dozen on the final category-one climb to La Zubia, as Valverde and Nairo Quintana, both of Movistar, took control at the front.
Photo: EPA
Colombia’s Quintana finished fifth behind two former Tour de France champions — Britain’s Froome of Team Sky, in second, and Spaniard Contador of Tinkoff-Saxo, in third.
Valverde has a 15-second lead over Quintana in the overall standings, with Contador in third, 18 seconds back, and Froome 22 adrift in fourth.
Lotto Belisol’s Ligthart played a major role in a break for the second day running, taking off with Mas Bonet of Seguros.
They built up a lead of almost 10 minutes, the biggest of the race to that point, and took it up to 14 minutes shortly before leaving the coast near Malaga toward the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Orica GreenEdge had said they would not try to defend Michael Matthews’ overall lead, but the Australian was at the front of the peloton as it entered the last 15km.
The two riders’ lead slipped under one minute near the category-one Cumbres Verdes ascent to the finish and Mas Bonet was caught.
Ligthart forged on alone before being joined by Christophe Le Mevel, but both were swallowed up with 3km to go, as Matthews and Peter Sagan were dropped from a peloton down to about 30 riders.
Quintana and Valverde hit the front in the final kilometer at the head of a small group including Froome and Contador, and Valverde surged again in the last 300m to win.
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