Chris Froome was expected to gain time in today's Vuelta a Espana time trial but the Brit ended up as one of the big losers as he could only manage 10th. Claiming that he started out too fast, he repeats that his main goal is to get a grand tour in his legs before next year's Tour de France.

Chris Froome remains fifth overall at the Vuelta a Espana following a top-10 finish in the stage 10 time trial.

Froome set a time of 48 minutes and 34 seconds across a rolling and technical 36.7-kilometre course but despite a spirited ride he couldn’t avoid time loss to a number of key rivals.

10th fastest on the road to Borja, the Brit came home 53 seconds back on rival Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) who rode into the race lead after a dramatic day.

Nairo Quintana (Movistar) was the last man down the ramp but lost the red jersey after crashing hard as he began the descent off the Alto del Moncayo. The time loss and subsequent bike change dropped the Colombian to 11th overall, 3:25 back on Contador.

Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) moved up a place to second and sits 27 seconds behind Contador, while second place on the stage was enough to vault Rigoberto Uran (Omega Pharma – Quick-Step) into third overall.

Despite the technical nature of the course the stage win still largely came down to a battle of the time trial specialists, with Tony Martin (Omega Pharma – Quick-Step) prevailing by 18 seconds over rival Fabian Cancellara (Trek Factory Racing).

Vasil Kiryienka set Team Sky’s quickest time of the day with a very impressive ride to seventh place.

After the stage Froome offered an honest appraisal of his ride as his return to top racing form continues.

"Obviously I was hoping for a better ride today," he told TeamSky.com

“I definitely started out too fast. For the first 15 minutes I felt fantastic and I think I chased it a little much. By the time I hit the climb I started to really feel the effort of the fast start and I paid the price for the rest of the time trial. I think anyone who races and knows that feeling of starting out too fast, and how hard it is to come back from being in the red, will know what I’m talking about. It’s a horrible feeling and I had to just try to hold on to it and finish the best I could.

“I’m just over a minute off GC still with a lot of racing to come. I’m going to keep fighting as best I can every day. Going back, my goal coming into this Vuelta was to get a Grand Tour into my legs and finish the season in good form. I think all things considered I’m still on track for that. I’m going to take it one day at a time.

"I’ve lost a lot of time today, but I’m still fifth overall just over a minute down, and going back to the goal I had when I came into this race, I’m going to keep fighting every day, push through to the end, I’m going to give it my all, and I’ve got a great team to support me here.

"Winning the Vuelta, this is going to be really difficult, I’m going to be here fighting every day, try and use the team as best I can, I will give it the best I can, hopefully I’m going to come up and up during the race, I’ve already felt through the first week of racing I’m getting that race rhythm back in the legs and hopefully that’s going to pull me into the last week in good form. I’m going to fight all the way through.

"I’m here to fight to the end I’m not just going to throw the towel in because I’m a minute down.”