Team Sky’s Chris Froome took an impressive victory on stage nine of the Vuelta a España, extending his overall lead after a week of racing.

The ninth stage took the riders from Orihuela to Cumbre del Sol over a course of 174 kilometres and it was a relatively flat route today with just the final four kilometres of the stage ramping up viciously to the finish-line.

An early break were always going to struggle to stay clear with the peloton not allowing them to gain a lead of more than three minutes. Cannondale-Drapac started to cut the advantage of the breakaway to under two minutes already before the penultimate climb with the last two remaining escapees being caught with 4.5km to go.

Team Sky had control of the peloton as the race hit the final climb and only Romain Bardet (AG2R La Mondiale) tried to challenge them with an attack, but he was unsuccessful.

Froome launched his attack with 800 metres remaining and held off a late challenge from Esteban Chaves (Orica- Scott) and Michael Woods (Cannondale-Drapac) to claim his first stage victory of 2017 in a tough mountain top finish.

The four-time Tour de France winner now goes into the first rest day of the Vuelta with a lead of 36 seconds over Chaves.

Froome said: “I put everything I had into that last couple of hundred metres. I was determined that they weren’t going to catch me. I’m really, really happy to get the victory. The team did a brilliant job on that final climb and set such a good tempo.

“After a week we couldn’t have asked to be in a better position. It’s been a fantastic start to the Vuelta. The legs are feeling great. I’ve been to the Vuelta so many times, trying to target this race, and so far it feels like everything is going really well.”

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