Tomasz Marczynski wins Stage 6 from the breakaway
Tomasz Marczynski (Lotto-Soudal) out sprinted breakaway companions Pawel Poljanski (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Enric Mas (Quick-Step Floors)
Marczynski takes his maiden Grand Tour stage win from the breakaway.
Chris Froome (Team Sky) managed to hold onto the red jersey despite repeated attacks from Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) on the final climb of the day.
After yesterday's punchy finish, Stage 6 looked set for a breakaway to succeed on the 204km route from Villareal to Sagunt. With five categorised climbs, with the last 36 km from the finish, it was not expected to affect the General Classification.
With the chance of stage success open to many, 35 riders managed to establish a breakaway. Amongst the big names to escape were Bob Jungles (Quick-Step Floors), George Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Jarlinson Pantano (Trek-Segafredo).
With breakaway rider Luis Leon Sanchez only 3m 24seds down on GC, Team Sky remained at the front of the peloton, maintaining a high pace to prevent the gap opening up further.
The high pace saw both the break and the peloton shell riders out the back all day. Thanks to Team Sky, the breakaway was slowly reeled in.
In tge breakaway, Jungles decided to push on, taking Maxime Monfort (Lotto-Soudal) along for the ride building a 40 second gap.
On the final climb of the day, Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) lit up the race by attacking, splitting the main group taking a group of favourites with him. On the steep gradients, Contador managed to drop some rivals but was unable to drop Froome.
As the race reached its final summit of the day, Pantano paced teammate Contador to the summit with Froome, Esteban Chaves (Orica-Scott) and Tejay Van Garderen (BMC Racing) in tow..
On the descent a naty crash saw Tejay Van Garderen hit the deck hard, losing contact with the Froome group.
Out front Enric Mas (Quick-Step Floors) and Tomasz Marcynski (Lotto-Soudal) led affairs with a gap of one minute with 35kms to go.
On the final descent, the race began to calm with the major GC contenders coming back together.
As the red jersey group closed the gap to the leaders, Fabio Aru (Astana) managed to regain contact with Froome alongside Chaves and Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrian-Merida) who had found themselves in difficulty on the climb.
With 10km left, the leaders, Mas, Marcynski and Pawel Pojankski began to work as a makeshift team to hold the chasing group.
Chasing back on, Van Garderen found himself on the deck again, losing his back wheel on one of the many roundabouts into the finish.
With 1,500 metres left, the two Poles and Poljanski and Marczynski battled the sprint with Spaniard Mas, Marczynski the victor.
2017 Vuelta a Espana Stage 6 Top Ten Results
1 Tomasz Marczynski (Pol) Lotto Soudal 4:47:02
2 Pawel Poljanski (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe
3 Enric Mas (Spa) Quick-Step Floors 0:00:08
4 Luis Leon Sanchez (Spa) Astana Pro Team
5 Jan Polanc (Slo) UAE-Team Emirates
6 Warren Barguil (Fra) Sunweb 0:00:26
7 Giovanni Visconti (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
8 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky
9 Fabrio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team
10 Jack Haig (Aus) Orica-Scott
2017 Vuelta a Espana Stage 6 Top Ten Results
1 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 22:54:37
2 Johan Esteban Chaves Rubio (Col) Orica-Scott 0:00:11
3 Nicolas Roche (Irl) BMC Racing 0:00:13
4 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing 0:00:27
5 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:00:36
6 David de la Cruz (Spa) Quick-Step Floors 0:00:40
7 Fabrio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:00:49
8 Adam Yates (GBr) Orica-Scott 0:00:50
9 Michael Woods (Can) Cannondale-Drapac 0:01:13
10 Simon Yates (GBr) Orica-Scott 0:01:26