Alaphilippe wins 8th stage, Froome extends Vuelta lead

Barguil expelled from race by Sunweb

This July 14, 2017, file photo shows Switzerland’s Roger Federer returns to Czech Republic’s Tomas Berdych during their Men’s Singles semifinal match

on day eleven at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London. (AP) XORRET DE CATI, Spain, Aug 26, (AFP): France’s Julian Alaphilippe claimed an explosive eighth stage of the Vuelta a Espana as Chris Froome left his rivals behind to extend his overall race lead.

Alaphilippe was part of an early breakaway group of 21 riders and held on to beat Jan Polanc and Rafal Majka by two seconds in a time of 4hrs 37mins 55secs.

Froome showed he remains the man to beat overall as the Briton aims to become just the third man to win the Tour de France and the Vuelta in the same year.

The Sky rider left all of his general classification rivals, bar Alberto Contador, trailing on the category-one climb up Xorret de Cati before a short descent to the finish line to extend his lead over Esteban Chaves to 28 seconds.

“I certainly didn’t need to attack but I am good to take advantage of it whilst my legs are feeling good,” a confident Froome told Spanish TV station Teledeporte.

“The most important thing for me was to try and keep pushing trying to open up the time gaps and we’ll see Sky’s British cyclist Chris Froome poses on the podium with the leader’s red jersey after the 8th stage of the 72nd edition of ‘La Vuelta’ Tour of Spain cycling race, a 199.5km route between Hellin to Xorret de Cati on Aug 26, 2017. (AFP)