Chris Froome bounce back from his below-par performances with a great performance in today's stage of the Vuelta a Espana where he managed to gain time on all his rivals. Having paced himself perfectly on the final climb, he used a great tactic but admits that he may pay for the efforts later in the race.

Chris Froome produced an incredible performance on stage 14 of the Vuelta a Espana to move up to third place overall.

The Team Sky rider battled hard on the brutally steep slopes of La Camperona to finish ahead of all his general classification rivals and move into a podium position following a grandstand finish.

Tenth on the stage behind the day’s break, Froome was distanced early on after accelerations from Alejandro Valverde and Alberto Contador but quickly settled into a rhythm to not only bridge the gap, but eventually go clear with 500 metres to go in an incredible show of strength.

The effort saw Froome take one second out of Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha), seven out of Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo), 29 out of Valverde (Movistar) and 1:06 out of Rigoberto Uran (Omega Pharma – Quick-Step).

Team Sky again pushed hard to set up their leader, stringing out the bunch on the lead-in to the imposing finale. Valverde lit the blue touch paper by attacking almost immediately, but Froome’s more measured approach paid dividends as the Brit ground his way to an impressive finish.

Contador now holds a lead of 42 seconds over Valverde, with Froome 31 seconds further back after the first of three summit finishes leading up to the second rest day.

“I was just trying to ride my own race," he said. "Everybody who would attack at the bottom of the last climb would be cooked, so I didn’t want to do that.

"The result is ok for me but I don’t know about the next two days. Sooner or later, I might pay for those intense efforts I’ve done on that climb. What makes me feel good is that my team is strong.”

Sports Director Dario Cioni heaped praise onto the whole team for putting together a successful stage and taking a measured approach to the challenge.

“It was a really great ride from Chris and the whole team,” he explained. “We did what we were looking to do out there and everyone followed the plan well.

“Chris was able to put a second on Rodriguez, a few into Contador and quite a big chunk on Valverde and Rigo.

“We thought that today could be an opportunity. With the steep part starting 2km out we thought some people might underestimate how hard it would be. It’s a long two kilometres! We actually hoped someone would start off too fast. Our goal was to go up with our pace, not worry too much about what other people were doing and hopefully it would be enough to get a good result.”

The tactic proved successful with Froome taking time on his rivals. Cioni admitted that it won’t simply be a case of trying to repeat the tactic on the next two summit finishes.

“Tomorrow’s stage is completely different to today and Monday will be different again. We need to make sure we select the right tactics for each one and keep the momentum going.”