Vuelta a Espana: Tom Dumoulin extends lead over Fabio Aru

Tom Dumoulin (right) dropped his closest rivals with a late attack on stage 19 of the Vuelta a Espana

Tom Dumoulin doubled his overall lead of the Vuelta a Espana on a rolling 19th stage won by breakaway rider Alexis Gougeard.

Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) started the day three seconds ahead of second-placed Fabio Aru (Astana) but extended that to six seconds by attacking and dropping the Italian on a short climb just over 1.5km from the finish in Avila.

The climb was on cobbles, which suited Giant-Alpecin more than Astana given the German team's classics pedigree, and Dumoulin consequently ordered his team to accelerate when the road reared up.

Alexis Gougeard won stage 19 out of the breakaway

Aru was unable to follow and then couldn't close the short gap to Dumoulin on the 1km of flat to the finish line.

Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) was also caught out by Dumoulin's surge and although he remains third overall, he lost nine seconds and is now 1min 24sec back.

Gougeard (Ag2r-La Mondiale) formed part of the day's 24-man breakaway but moved into a solo lead with 22km remaining and hung on to win by 40 seconds from runner-up Nelson Oliveira (Lampre-Merida).

The Vuelta continues on Saturday with a mountainous 175.8km 20th stage from San Lorenzo de El Escorial to Cercedilla. Follow the stage with our live blog. Coverage begins after the end of stage seven of the Tour of Britain, at about 3.30pm. 

Stage 19 result

1 Alexis Gougeard (Fra) Ag2r-La Mondiale

2 Nelson Oliveira (Por) Lampre-Merida, +40sec

3 Maxime Monfort (Bel) Lotto Soudal, +44

4 Andrey Amador (Cos) Movistar, same time

5 Tiago Machado (Por) Katusha, st

6 Amael Moinard (Fra) BMC Racing, st

7 Fabio Duarte (Col) Colombia, +53

8 David Arroyo (Esp) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, +1:03

9 Christian Knees (Ger) Team Sky, +1:17

10 Fran Ventoso (Esp) Movistar, st

Selected others

25 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Giant-Alpecin, +16:18

28 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana, +16:21

General classification

1 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Giant-Alpecin, 78:20:51

2 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana, +6sec

3 Joaquim Rodriguez (Esp) Katusha, +1:24

4 Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff-Saxo, +2:31

5 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar, +3:02

6 Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, +3:24

7 Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica-GreenEdge, +3:39

8 Daniel Moreno (Esp) Katusha, +3:46

9 Mikel Nieve (Esp) Team Sky, +4:19

10 Louis Meintjes (RSA) MTN-Qhubeka, +7:00