Vuelta a Espana: Chris Froome loses time as Bert-Jan Lindeman wins

Chris Froome lost time to his rivals for Vuelta a Espana victory as breakaway rider Bert-Jan Lindeman won stage seven and Esteban Chaves retained the overall lead.

Froome (Team Sky) was dropped with about 2km left of the climb to the summit finish at La Alpujarra and finished 27 seconds behind a group containing Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) and Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge).

The result sees Froome fall from seventh to 12th in the general classification and leaves him 1min 22sec down on Chaves, 33 seconds adrift of Valverde and 25 seconds behind Quintana.

He has also been leapfrogged by Fabio Aru (Astana), who crossed the line seven seconds ahead of the Quintana group on the day after attacking with about 1.5km to go.

Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Shimano) and Dan Martin (Cannondale-Garmin) both finished with the favourites to remain second and third overall respectively, 10 and 33 seconds adrift.

Lindeman (LottoNL-Jumbo), meanwhile, formed part of the day's five-man breakaway and then prevailed from a pulsating battle with fellow escapees Ilia Koshevoy (Lampre-Merida) and Jerome Cousin (Europcar) to claim the biggest win of his career.

Koshevoy took second place on the day, nine seconds down, while Aru snatched third after passing Cousin at the death.

Froome initially looked comfortable as Astana and Movistar shared the pace-setting up the bulk of the 22km final climb, but he then started dropping down the favourites group inside the final 3km and lost contact a short time later.

Rather than make them wait and help, Froome told his two remaining team-mates, Nicolas Roche and Mikel Nieve, to push on and they subsequently both finished well ahead of him.

The Vuelta continues on Saturday with a 182.5km eighth stage from Puebla de Don Fadrique to Murcia, which should end in a sprint. Follow all the action with our live blog from 3pm BST.

Stage seven result

1 Bert-Jan Lindeman (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo, 5:10:24

2 Ilia Koshevoy (Blr) Lampre-Merida, +9sec 

3 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana, +29 

4 Jerome Cousin (Fra) Europcar, +34 

5 Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff-Saxo, +36 

6 Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica-GreenEdge, same time 

7 Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, st 

8 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar, st 

9 Louis Meintjes (RSA) MTN-Qhubeka, st

10 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky, st

Selected others

12 Joaquim Rodriguez (Esp) Katusha, st

17 Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky, +1:03

General classification

1 Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica-GreenEdge, 27:06:13

2 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Giant-Alpecin, +10sec

3 Dan Martin (Irl) Cannondale-Garmin, +33

4 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky, +36

5 Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, +49

6 Joaquim Rodriguez (Esp) Katusha, +56

7 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar, +57

8 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana, +1:12

9 Daniel Moreno (Esp) Katusha, +1:18

10 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Ag2r-La Mondiale, +1:19

Selected other

12 Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky, +1:22