Madrid: Chris Froome rebounded superbly to increase his overall lead in the Vuelta a Espana to one minute 37 seconds with a lightning late attack which left nearest challenger Vincenzo Nibali in his wake after Friday’s 18th stage.
After a disappointing day Thursday when his overall lead was cut by 42 seconds, Froome reasserted his dominance and edged closer to becoming the first rider in 39 years to win the Vuelta and the Tour de France in the same season.
Belgian Sander Armee won his first grand tour stage by 31 seconds with a late attack from the breakaway group, dropping Alexey Lutsenko in the final 600 metres. Fabio Aru finished the strongest of the general classification group, nine minutes and 56 seconds behind Armee.
At one point, Nibali had more than a minute on Froome, but the Briton launched a late attack along with Spaniard Alberto Contador and Canadian Michael Woods to trim the gap to the Italian to 12 seconds.
Nibali could not keep up with the group as they approached the summit finish in Santo Toribio de Liebana, and lost 21 seconds to Froome, a day after cutting the Briton’s overall lead to 1:16 seconds in the Los Machucos mountains.
“That feels great especially after a difficult day yesterday,” Froome told reporters. “It’s good to bounce back again,” he added.
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