Chris Froome wins stage nine of La Vuelta and extends his lead
Chris Froome strengthened his lead on La Vuelta by winning stage nine ahead of nearest rivals Esteban Chaves and Nicolas Roche
The Briton attacked with 500 metres to go of the steep uphill finish at Cumbre del Sol and looked to have built a decisive gap, only for Chaves to dig deep and get back onto Froome's back wheel.
He was able to attack again and pulled clear to win by four seconds and extend his lead over Chaves (Orica-Scott) in the general classification to 36 seconds.
The last rider of an initial 10-man breakaway was finally caught by the peloton with six kilometres remaining,
Romain Bardet (AG2R-La Mondiale) twice tried to attack from remaining peloton on the final climb.
Froome was paced by team-mate Mikel Nieve at the front of the group containing all the GC favorites.
Froome attacked with 500m to go and lifted the pace again after Chaves bridged across with 200m to go to extend his lead in the red jersey.
"I put everything I had into that last couple of hundred metres," said Froome after his first stage win of 2017. "I was determined that they weren't going to catch me.
"I'm really, really happy to get the victory. The team did a brilliant job on that final climb and set such a good tempo."
"After a week we couldn't have asked to be in a better position. It's been a fantastic start to the Vuelta. The legs are feeling great.
"I've been to the Vuelta so many times, trying to target this race, and so far it feels like everything is going really well."
Monday August 28th is a rest day before stage 10 sees the riders tackle the 164.8km from Caravaca to El Pozo. The route takes in the huge mountain of Bermejo that's crested with 30 kilometres remaining.
2017 Vuelta a Espana Stage 9 Top Ten Results
1 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 4:07:13
2 Johan Esteban Chaves Rubio (Col) Orica-Scott 0:00:04
3 Michael Woods (Can) Cannondale-Drapac 0:00:05
4 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:00:08
5 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin
6 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:12
7 David de la Cruz (Spa) Quick-Step Floors
8 Sam Oomen (Ned) Team Sunweb
9 Nicolas Roche (Irl) BMC Racing Team 0:00:14
10 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
2017 Vuelta a Espana GC after Stage 9
1 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 36:33:16
2 Johan Esteban Chaves Rubio (Col) Orica-Scott 0:00:36
3 Nicolas Roche (Irl) BMC Racing Team 0:01:05
4 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:01:17
5 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team 0:01:27
6 David de la Cruz (Spa) Quick-Step Floors 0:01:30
7 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:01:33
8 Michael Woods (Can) Cannondale-Drapac 0:01:52
9 Adam Yates (GBr) Orica-Scott 0:01:55
10 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin 0:02:15