Vuelta a Espana: Chris Froome says Nairo Quintana is in great form
Tuesday 30 August 2016 00:03, UK
Chris Froome has conceded he may have to wait until stage 19’s individual time trial to overhaul the in-form Nairo Quintana as Vuelta a Espana leader.
Quintana moved to the top of the general classification by beating second-placed Robert Gesink by 24 seconds and third-placed Froome by 25 seconds on the climb to stage 10's summit finish at Lagos de Covadonga.
Although Froome is still only 58 seconds down on Quintana in third place overall, he believes the Colombian could be tough to beat in the mountains and is instead targeting the potentially pivotal 37km time trial.
Froome said: "Nairo is in great form and we have seen that over the last few days. I have got to be happy with where I'm at, just keep doing my thing and hope that over the next few days I find either an opportunity to go for it or defend my position that we're in and wait for the time trial.
"For this point in the season, after the Tour [de France] or the Olympics, I'm just hanging on to what I have left and I'm trying to get through the best I can."
Froome has developed a habit over the past three years at the Vuelta of riding climbs at his own pace rather than that of his rivals.
The tactic has regularly seen him be dropped at the bottom of mountains, only to surge back into contention near the top.
Froome added: "I was riding more by feeling today, just riding with what I felt I could do on the climb in the most efficient way to get up there
"Maybe if I had gone and really pushed myself at the beginning, I would have lost even more time. At this point I really have to calculate my efforts.
"A couple of days ago, when I really got stuck into the climb earlier on, I paid for it afterwards. I think today was definitely a more measured effort. Also in the past, every time I have ridden this climb, I have blown, so I feel like today was a better effort than I have done in the past."
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.
