Quintana holds off Froome, set to win Spanish Vuelta

Quintana (Movistar), wearing the race leader’s red jersey, was the last man down the start ramp but could not maintain the pace of the Tour de France victor and finished 11th in the stage, losing two minutes and 16 seconds to Froome.

Nairo Quintana effectively clinched his first Tour of Spain title after holding off Chris Froome in today’s decisive mountain stage.

Froome beat Quintana by 2min 5sec in a time trial of nearly identical distance during July’s Tour de France and is expected to make even greater gains on Friday’s mostly flat course.

“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 wonderful. He really flew and got a better time than we had anticipated”, Quintana said. “I left it all out on the road”, said Froome after Friday’s impressive performance.

“There’s still one more really tough day of racing tomorrow”.

“Nairo has a good team around him”.

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.

Instead, he will rely on Friday’s time trial to rescue his bid for overall victory.

“My team defended all the attacks of the other teams, above all (Froome’s) Sky”, Quintana said. “My stats weren’t bad and the important thing is I continue to have strong legs to be able to defend the lead”.

Froome clapped as Quintana pulled past him following the last of several one-on-one climbing duels by the stars on the three-week Grand Tour. I gave it a go and it was incredible. The 104.8km flat stage takes the riders from Las Rozas on the outskirts of the Spanish capital into a series of laps around the city centre.