Vuelta a Espana: Froome wins stage 16 time trial

Chris Froome (Team Sky) extended his overall lead at the Vuelta a Espana with a commanding win in the 40.2-kilometre time trial on stage 16. The race leader edged out Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) by 29 seconds with Vincenzo Nibali in third at 57 seconds.

Froome completed the time trial course in a time of 47:00 to buffer his lead over Nibali in the GC to 1:58. Kelderman's performance was enough to edge him ahead of Ilnur Zakarin for a spot on the podium with five stages remaining.

Alberto Contador (Trek Segafredo) finished fifth on the stage and moved up to fifth on GC. There were poor performances from Fabio Aru (Astana) and Esteban Chaves (Orica Scott), who both lost considerable time and fell down the standings. With less than a week of the Vuelta remaining Froome is on course to complete a rare Tour de France and Vuelta double.

The Team Sky leader looked in control throughout the stage, and although he was slightly down on a handful of riders at the first time check at 13 kilometres, his incessantly consistent pace wore down the likes of Kelderman and Contador – the latter of whom started strongly but was unable to hold back the tide of Froome's dominance in the second half of the test.

Fabio Aru's 26th place, 3:03 down on Froome - effectively ended his podium hopes, while Chaves' 4:01 loss to Froome saw him drop from fifth to ninth in the overall standings.

Nibali – who came into the stage hoping to limit his loses to Froome to around 30 seconds – put in a consistent performance and clawed back time on several rivals in the second half of the race but he conceded time to Froome with every passing kilometre and was forced to settle for a respectable but nevertheless GC-damaging third place. He remains Froome's closest challenger but must hope for a monumental off-day or a mistake from the Team Sky rider in order to win his second Vuelta.

"I was riding it at the speed I felt best. I wasn't really getting many time checks from the car so I didn't really know where I was. I actually thought it wasn't good news, so I was worried half way through. But coming into the last six or seven kilometres, I found out I was on track to fight for the stage. It was a big relief," Froome said at the finish.

"I'm super, super happy to be in this position. It's an amazing feeling to extend my lead now and be in this position, with four days of big racing left now. I'm going to take it one day at a time but I want to say a massive thanks to the support team at Team Sky. It's a huge part of being able to do what I'm able to do, having everything there to focus on the job at hand. I have a good buffer but the race isn't over, so I'll have to keep fighting every day and get one day closer to Madrid. Tomorrow is going to be absolutely brutal. Los Machucos, from what I can see, is a wall. It's a big GC battle for sure."

Contador rises as Chaves falls

There was an air of inevitability as the sun beat down on the Vuelta, and the remaining riders warmed up for the first test after Monday's rest day. Chris Froome took up his position on Team Sky's new juggernaut, tapping away on the rollers as one-by-one, riders siphoned off from the start-ramp.

Lennard Kamna (Team Sunweb) and Tobias Ludvigsson (FDJ) posted early lead times but when Alberto Contador made his way to the starting house the race interest rose significantly. This was, of course, Contador's final time trial and the Spaniard looked focussed as he set off on the motor racing circuit that occupied the first kilometres of the stage. The Spaniard set the fastest time at the first check but the script of Froome winning – convincingly at least – looked threatened when the Sky rider came through the first time check 10 seconds slower than Kelderman and five seconds down on his eternal Spanish rival.

Kelderman, who has gone unnoticed for much of this race, was producing the time trial of his life. He devoured Chaves for two minutes in the opening half of the and whizzed through the first check a full 18 seconds ahead of Contador.

Yet by the next check at 27.9 kilometers normality had been restored. Froome had etched ahead of Kelderman by seven seconds as Contador began to slowly fade. Zakarin remained in strong while Nibali had pulled himself further into contention and was just four seconds shy of Contador.

The Trek-Segafredo leader was the first rider to dip under 48 minutes as he sparked a flurry of fast finishes. Kelderman was next home in a time of 47:29 with Zakarin dropping to fourth in GC as a result. As Nibali entered the last kilometre it was clear that Froome was closing but the Italian's time of 47:57 was enough to take third on the stage. He had held one of his main rivals to 30 seconds but that it was Kelderman, and not Froome, perhaps illustrated the growing divide between the race leader and the rest.

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