Wednesday 7 September 2016 23:18, UK
Chris Froome hung on to second place overall at the Vuelta a Espana by finishing alongside his rivals on a mountainous 17th stage won by breakaway rider Mathias Frank.
Froome (Team Sky) was twice dropped by Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) and Esteban Chaves (Orica-BikeExchange) on the steep, 3.8km climb to the summit finish on the Alto Mas de la Costa, but he caught back up on both occasions and all four riders crossed the line together, 3min 27sec behind Frank.
It means Quintana stays top of the general classification, 3min 37sec ahead of Froome, 3min 57sec in front of Chaves and 4min 2sec better off than Contador with four stages remaining.
The stage was a major success for Quintana, who now only has Friday's 37km individual time trial, Saturday's final mountain-top finish and two sprints stages left on which to defend the red jersey.
Frank (IAM Cycling), meanwhile, formed part of a 28-man breakaway but moved into a lone lead early on the final climb, which averaged 12.5 per cent in gradient and reached a maximum of 21 per cent.
It looked like he would be caught by counter-attackers from the chase group behind, but he hung on to beat Leopold Konig (Team Sky) into second place by six seconds and Robert Gesink (LottoNL-Jumbo) into third by 11 seconds.
Frank said: "I'm super-happy. It was my big goal when I came here; I really wanted to win a stage. I was already close a couple of times and finally it worked out."
Back down the road, the favourites rode the first half of the final climb together until Contador attacked with 2km to go and opened up a small lead.
A counter-attack from Quintana with just over 1km to go reeled the Spaniard back in and although Froome was momentarily dropped, he dug in and caught back up a couple of hundred metres later.
He was then distanced again by an attack from Chaves inside the last 800m, but Froome rallied once more and regained parity just in time for the finish line.
The Vuelta continues on Thursday with a 200.6km 18th stage from Requena to Gandia, which should end in a sprint. Find out more about the route in our race guide and follow the action with our live blog from 1pm BST.
Stage 17 result
1 Mathias Frank (Sui) IAM Cycling, 4:34:38
2 Leopold Konig (Cze) Team Sky, +6sec
3 Robert Gesink (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo +11
4 Pello Bilbao (Esp) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, +14
5 Dario Cataldo (Ita) Astana, +16
6 Jose Herrada (Esp) Movistar, +29
7 Axel Domont (Fra) Ag2r-La Mondiale, +48
8 Bart De Clerq (Bel) Lotto Soudal, +57
9 Kristijan Durasek (Cro) Lampre-Merida, +1:02
10 Haimar Zubeldia (Esp) Trek-Segafredo, +1:04
Selected others
24 Alberto Contador (Esp) Tinkoff, +3:27
25 Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky, same time
26Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar, st
27 Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica-BikeExchange, st
General classification
1 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar, 69:35;32
2 Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky, +3:37
3 Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica-BikeExchange, +3:57
4 Alberto Contador (Esp) Tinkoff, +4:02
5 Simon Yates (GB) Orica-BikeExchange, +6:03
6 Andrew Talansky (USA) Cannondale-Drapac, +7:34
7 Samuel Sanchez (Esp) BMC Racing, +8:12
8 Davide Formolo (Ita) Cannondale-Drapac, +8:13
9 Michele Scarponi (Ita) Astana, +8:28
10 David de la Cruz (Esp) Etixx - Quick-Step, +8:52
