Monday 11 September 2017 14:28, UK
Chris Froome reasserted his authority on Stage 18 of the Vuelta a Espana to end the day with a 97-second lead.
Team Sky's race leader regained 21 seconds lost to Vincenzo Nibali the previous day with just two meaningful days' racing remaining.
Froome will become just the third man to complete a Tour de France-Vuelta double in the same season if he staves off any danger between now and Sunday's parade around central Madrid.
The Briton's Sky team-mates helped keep him out of trouble on the 169km-stage from Suances to Santo Toribio de Liebana, fending off a number of attacks in the chasing group as the battle for stage honours was fought out up the road.
And with 600m remaining, Froome accelerated away from Nibali, reclaiming half the 42 seconds the Italian had clawed back on Wednesday's brutal climb to the Stage 17 finish.
"That feels great, especially after a difficult day yesterday," Froome said afterwards. "Its good to bounce back again, and as I said yesterday, the morale is still good and the team is still strong.
"We're just looking forward to getting though these next couple of days now."
The stage win went to Lotto-Soudal's Belgian rider Sander Armee, who finished ahead of Alexey Lutsenko and Giovanni Visconti in a time of four hours, nine minutes and 39 seconds.
