Chris Froome went into the Vuelta a Espana with lots of uncertainty and he suffered a small blow in yesterday's mountain stage. Nonetheless, Team Sky principal Dave Brailsford is pleased with the situation after nine days of racing.

 

Having crashed out of the Tour de France, Chris Froome was a late addition to the start list for the Vuelta a Espana and he went into the race on the back of less than ideal preparation. On the first rest day, he sits in fourth overall, 28 seconds behind leader Nairo Quintana.

 

Froome has given very mixed signals about his condition. In the first mountain stage to La Zubia, he seemed to be the strongest climber in the race and he proved his strength when he gained a few seconds in the uphill sprint in stage 7. He took the initiative in the crosswinds in stage 8 and things were looking good when he went into yesterday's mountain stage.

 

Here things started to unravel as he was unable to keep up with his key rivals and lost 25 seconds to Alberto Contador, Nairo Quintana and Joaquim Rodriguez. This means that he goes into the second week with time to make up but Team Sky principal Dave Brailsford is pleased with the outcome of the first part of the race.

 

“Obviously we came into the race with a bit of an unknown situation with Chris needing time off after his Tour crash but if you stand back and look at how things stand at the moment we can be quite happy with how the race has gone so far,” Brailsford told Cyclingnews.

 

“The team has ridden well overall. Chris rode well on the stage to Alcaudete [stage 7] and the emphasis since we’ve been here is to make sure that we commit 100 per cent during the race. He lost a bit of time yesterday and it’s been a hard nine days but overall, if you’d said to me at the start of the race that we’d be in this position, I think we would have been really happy."

 

Brailsford admits that the team has had a different approach to this race than they have had to the Tour de France in recent years.

 

“I don’t think we’ve come here with that same out-and-out winning mentality," he said. "We’ve come here with the plan of competing all the way through the race with a leader who is coming back. We’re going to give it everything we’ve got but the mentality is a little bit different because it doesn’t feel like there’s any pressure on us at all. It’s actually been fun."

 

Froome has a first chance to strike back in tomorrow's 37km time trial to Borja.