Double still in Froome’s reach

CHRIS FROOME survived the first of two successive mountain finishes on Saturday to hold on to the red jersey in the Vuelta a Espana, coming fourth in Stage 14 and only losing four seconds of his overall lead to nearest challenger Vincenzo Nibali.

Polish rider Rafal Majka took the stage by an impressive margin of 27 seconds, picking up his first win at La Vuelta to go with three stage victories at the Tour de France, where he was King of the Mountains in 2014 and 2016.

Majka, third overall in La Vuelta in 2015, joined a breakaway group of 10 riders 20km into the race and outlasted them all, burning away from Bart De Clercq, Rui Costa and Patrick Konrad in the final 10km, just before the climb kicked in, finishing 27 seconds ahead of Miguel Angel Lopez.

Nibali came third to take the four bonus seconds off Froome, who was just behind the Italian in fourth.

Froome holds a 55-second lead. Saturday’s stage was the first of two back-to-back summit finishes which will have a big say in whether he succeeds in becoming the first rider in 39 years to win the Tour de France and La Vuelta in the same year.

Stage 14, which finished in the Sierra de La Pandera, included 1 830m of incline, while yesterday promised to be even more punishing, 2 510m up in the Sierra Nevada mountain range in Granada. — Reuters