Tom Dumoulin proved that he has recovered from the dislocated shoulder, which forced him out of the Tour de France, finishing second on the first mountaintop finish of the Vuelta a Espana. His fine performance also elevated him to second overall, only five seconds behind stage winner and race leader Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge).

The 160 km from Alhaurin de la Torre to Caminito del Rey finished atop the Alto de la Mesa, a short but punchy climb. A group of four started up the climb together, but by the final few hundred meters it came down to Dumoulin and Chaves. He couldn’t match the Colombian’s final spurt and finished one second later.

It was a rolling stage with only two ranked climbs, but the course was difficult enough to bring some big time gaps. Lawson Craddock was the team’s second ranked rider, coming in 38th at two minutes down. The rest of the squad settled for the grupetto.

There were numerous crashes along the way, with Zico Waeytens hitting the pavement twice, but bouncing back uninjured. None of the Giant-Alpecin riders were involved in the large crash with 30 km to go.

“I am very happy and satisfied. It took me two weeks to recover after my crash in the Tour, and from that moment I was determined to come back even stronger. I worked really hard for this and I am delighted that it worked out so well,” Dumoulin said.

"I wanted to give it a try after seven weeks not training because of my crash. I went to altitude two weeks, I knew I had lost a little bit of weight and I wanted to see what level I was. Well, it was really good!

"Unfortunately Chaves was stronger. I didn't pull because I knew my chance was to stay in the wheel and to sprint. It's not the most attractive way to win a stage but I would have taken it!  I can't be disappointed. This means a lot to me."

“Today’s result was a wonderful surprise,” said coach Addy Engels.

“We knew that Tom had recovered well after crashing out of the Tour, but this is above our expectations. It is really impressive to see him performing like this in his first race back. We are very satisfied and we will continue to chase our goal of a stage win in the next days.”