Pole wins stage as Froome holds lead

Polish rider Tomasz Marczynski earned his first stage win at a Grand Tour by outsprinting two rivals at the finish to take an enthralling stage six of the Vuelta a Espana, as Chris Froome increased his lead in the general classification by 1sec.

Froome leads Esteban Chaves by 11sec in his bid to become the first rider in 39 years to do a double of the Tour de France and the Vuelta, as Tejay van Garderen endured a nightmare stage after a promising start.

The American was in the same group as Froome and a resurgent Alberto Contador when he crashed with little more than 30km to go in the 204.4km hilly stage from Vilareal to Sagunt.

Van Garderen’s day was made even worse when he punctured in the final 3km and then fell off his bike again shortly after. He lost a further 20sec on Froome and is down to fourth from second in the general classification, 30sec behind the Briton, with Nicolas Roche 17sec ahead of him in third.

Contador produced another strong display after roaring back to life inWednesday’s stage, following a blunt performance in the first mountain stage on Monday in Andorra due to suffering from a stomach virus.

He finished alongside Froome in the third group, 26sec back from Marczynski.

“I came here really wanting to win a stage and to do it so soon is amazing,” t wo-time Polish champion Marczynski told reporters. /