Colombian Esteban Chaves has maintain his top ten position overall going into the second rest day of the Vuelta a Espana, finishing 20th on stage 16 – the second queen stage of the three-week Tour.

Despite only 6.8km in length, the final climb was one of the toughest of the Spanish race with an increase in altitude of almost 800m, including ramps of over 20%, all after six previous climbs.

Chaves lost touch with the top general classification riders with just 2.5 kilometres to go, finishing one minute behind Joaquim Rodriguez (Team Katusha) who finished ninth to move into the red leader’s jersey. Almost nine minutes earlier Frank Schleck (Trek Factory Racing) won the stage from the day’s early break.

“They started the day very conservatively but when they turned up the gas they really turned it up hard,” sport director Neil Stephens said. “All of the teams suffered a lot and even Esteban had to go a little deep on the second last climb.

“Going into the final climb he really had to pace himself. He did a fantastic job getting into the last kilometre and then unfortunately the really steep stuff took a bit of a toll on him and he lost a little bit of time. It’s still a fantastic result and we are still in sixth place.

"We have to be realistic that there might be some people that do a better time trial than us the day after tomorrow but we will take the rest day to recover physically, reassess the situation and get ready for our final assault on the last week of the Vuelta.”