Vuelta a Espana: Nairo Quintana says Chris Froome is still favourite
Monday 29 August 2016 21:33, UK
Nairo Quintana believes Chris Froome is the favourite for overall victory at the Vuelta a Espana, despite extending his lead over the Briton to 58 seconds on stage 10.
Quintana returned to the top of the general classification after a day's absence by beating second-placed Robert Gesink by 24 seconds and third-placed Froome by 25 seconds at the summit finish at Lagos de Covadonga.
Quintana appears to be in his best climbing form of the season so far and has five more summit finishes to look forward to, but he remains concerned about potentially heavy time losses to Froome on stage 19's 37km individual time trial.
"What I felt today gives me more confidence to keep fighting and defending this [leader's red] jersey," Quintana said.
"Froome is still very close, when you look at what's to come. Should we keep this minute we have when the Calpe time trial arrives, he will be the main favourite.
"I think three minutes would be a reasonable gap to tackle the time trial with calmness."
Quintana is relishing his return to top form following a disappointing Tour de France in which he finished third but was regularly dropped by Froome in the mountains.
He added: "I have always had confidence in my ability. At times I'm better [than Froome]; at other times worse. But at the moment I feel better than him and that's a real boost."
The Vuelta pauses for its first rest day on Tuesday but resumes on Wednesday with a 168.6km 11th stage ending with a category-one summit finish at Pena Cabarga. Find out more about the route in our race guide and follow the action with our live blog from 3pm BST.
