Magnus Cort Nielsen wins Stage 16 as Roglic extends lead

Defending champion Primoz Roglic extended his overall lead of the Vuelta a Espana as Denmark's Magnus Cort Nielsen won Friday's 16th stage

Slovenian Roglic finished second on the day to increase his advantage over Richard Carapaz to 45 seconds heading into the final weekend of the race that finishes in Madrid on Sunday.

Saturday's mountainous run represents a chance for Carapaz and third-placed Hugh Carthy to threaten Jumbo Visma's Roglic for the title with a 178.2km ride from Sequeros to the hilltop Alto de La Covatilla, before Sunday's processional stage into the Spanish capital.

Education First's Cort, who won two stages at the 2016 Vuelta, edged an aggressive Roglic while Portuguese rider Rui Costa came third at the finish line.

"I timed it pretty well, I came through the last corner in a decent position and then I was sitting, looking for an opening," Cort said.

"I found that with 200m to go and I went with everything I had," he added.

Angel Madrazo, in his home country, and Colombian Juan Felipe Osorio from Spanish team Burgos BH made the early break after less than 20km.

Their breakaway grew to include Frenchman Remi Cavagna and Australian Robert Stannard who extended their lead to five minutes over the peloton with 100km left ahead of the two category climbs of the day.

With 39km remaining and with the breakaway up El Robledo, Cavagna went alone and was only caught by Stannard as the peloton continued to eat into the advantage.

On the calm descent from the only sprint section of the day's action the lead was down to 20 seconds ahead of the final 30km before the pair were caught in the final 20km.

VIDEO: 2020 La Vuelta Stage 16 Highlights

2020 La Vuelta Stage 16 Top 10

1 Magnus Cort Nielsen (Den) EF Pro Cycling 04:04:35
2 Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma
3 Rui Costa (Por) UAE Team Emirates
4 Dion Smith (NZl) Mitchelton-Scott
5 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team
6 Richard Carapaz (Ecu) Ineos Grenadiers
7 Felix Grossschartner (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe
8 Dorian Godon (Fra) AG2R la Mondiale
9 Michael Valgren (Den) NTT Pro Cycling
10 Jasha Sütterlin (Ger) Team Sunweb

2020 La Vuelta GC after Stage 16

1 Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma 64:20:31
2 Richard Carapaz (Ecu) Ineos Grenadiers 00:00:45
3 Hugh Carthy (GBr) EF Pro Cycling 00:00:53
4 Daniel Martin (Irl) Israel Start-Up Nation 00:01:48
5 Enric Mas Nicolau (Spa) Movistar Team 00:03:29
6 Wout Poels (Ned) Bahrain McLaren 00:06:21
7 Felix Grossschartner (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe 00:07:20
8 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 00:08:45
9 Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus) Astana Pro Team 00:08:54
10 David De la Cruz Melgarejo (Spa) UAE Team Emirates 00:09:29