Vuelta a Espana: Esteban Chaves regains lead with stage six win

Colombia’s Esteban Chaves climbed back into the lead of the Vuelta a Espana with a brilliant solo win on stage six’s summit finish as Chris Froome finished alongside all of his closest rivals.

Chaves attacked with 2.3km of the steep 3km climb to the finish at Sierra de Cazorla remaining and hung on to win by five seconds from runner-up Dan Martin (Cannondale-Garmin) and third-placed Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin).

Chaves had started the day one second behind leader Dumoulin in second place, but his victory and 10 bonus seconds see him return to the top of the general classification, 10 seconds ahead of his Dutch rival and 33 seconds ahead of Martin in third.

Froome (Team Sky) finished 11 seconds down on Chaves in seventh on the day in a group also containing Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) and Fabio Aru (Astana).

Froome stays seventh overall, 55 seconds down on Chaves, six seconds adrift of fifth-placed Valverde and two seconds up on ninth-place Quintana.

Chaves, who also won stage two, said: "I can't believe this. Today was a really hot stage, really long. In the middle of the stage I spoke with Mathew Hayman and he told me, 'If you have good legs, you race because you never know what will happen tomorrow'.

"The first 500m [of the final climb] is really steep. One part is 14 per cent. In this part I had really good legs. I'm really happy. The team is amazing."

Breakaway rider Steve Cummings (MTN-Qhubeka) led the field heading on to the final climb, but he ground to a halt when the road reared up to its steepest gradient and the attacking Chaves soon came flying past.

He quickly opened up a lead of 15 seconds, and although both Dumoulin launched determined counter-attacks, neither could reel the 25-year-old back in.

The Vuelta continues on Friday with a 191.1km seventh stage from Jodar to La Alpujarra, which ends with the third of the race's eight summit finishes.

Stage six result

1 Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica-GreenEdge, 4:46:16

2 Dan Martin (Irl) Cannondale-Garmin, +5sec

3 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Giant-Alpecin, same time

4 Ruben Plaza (Esp) Lampre-Merida, +11

5 Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, st

6 Joaquim Rodriguez (Esp) Katusha, st

7 Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky, st

8 Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff-Saxo, st

9 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar, st

10 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky, st

General classification

1 Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica-GreenEdge, 21:55:13

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 Daniel Moreno (Esp) Katusha, +51

7 Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky, +55

8 Joaquim Rodriguez (Esp) Katusha, +56

9 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar, +57

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