Chris Froome was a surprise loser in the second big mountain stage of the Vuelta a Espana when he lost 23 seconds to his key rivals. Nonetheless, the Brit remains upbeat ahead of the second week as he is still getting into his race rhythm after his long break.

Chris Froome dug deep to limit his losses on stage nine of the Vuelta a Espana and a tough summit finish at Aramón Valdelinares.

Team Sky set a searing pace up the first-category climb in the pouring rain but attacks from his general classification rivals saw Froome distanced inside the final kilometre.

The Team Sky rider now sits fifth overall, 28 seconds behind new race leader Nairo Quintana (Movistar) after the Colombian rode into red ahead of the first rest day.

Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) pushed clear with two kilometres to go and began to put time into Froome and overnight leader Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) on a steep section of gradient.

Finishing alongside Quintana and Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha), Contador now moves up to second overall, three seconds back on Quintana with the top four now separated by a mere nine seconds.

Team Sky had hit the front with numbers from 25km to go and one by one the team took up the pace-setting. Pete Kennaugh rode hard to up tempo and claw back a portion of riders from the breakaway which went on to contest the stage win.

Dario Cataldo had been among the 31-strong group but dropped back for a stint on the front of what was now a very elite group. Up the road Winner Anacona (Lampre-Merida) held on to win the stage and moved up to fourth overall in the process – coming within nine seconds of the race lead.

After the stage Froome lauded the efforts of his team-mates and admitted that, while the day's time loss was not ideal, he is happy with his form heading deeper into the race.

"Conditions were really tough out there," he said. "I think we can take a lot of good away from that stage in terms of how we rode as a team. I'm so so proud of how the guys rode today, they did such a good job. They kept me at the front throughout the stage.

"In the final I didn't have the legs to follow the top guys when they went. But I think given where I've come from on the back of the Tour and the build-up into the race I'm really happy with how things have gone so far. I can definitely feel I'm starting to pick up that race rhythm back into my legs and I'm looking forward to the second half of this race.

“It was a test stage out there, especially with the conditions there were today but the guys did a fantastic job. My main thing is to try and stay in contention at the moment with eyes on the time trial.

"The time I’ve lost today is not a disaster. It would have been better to be able to follow those guys. They had the legs on me in the final, a couple of kilometers there. For now, it’s just about getting through with the least loss as possible. I’m looking forward to the time trial now.”

Froome will hope his time trialling prowess will enable him to claw back time across a 36.7km course on Tuesday.

"I'm going to go and see the time trial course tomorrow and see what we're up against," he added. "It's relatively short compared to time trials elsewhere. But I enjoy time trialling and I'm hoping to make the most of it.

"I think we've come to see that Contador is going extremely well. He's got over his injuries pretty quickly and he's going well - as are Nairo Quintana and Rodriguez. The usual guys we expected for the general classification. It's a huge fight here and it's going to be a big race all the way to the end. Every second here or there is going to count."