Nicolas Roche dug deep to finish third on a dramatic second stage of the Vuelta a Espana which saw time gaps open up between the main contenders.

Roche slipped clear of a reduced peloton by following a move from Nairo Quintana (Movistar) on the final climb of the day, and then pressed towards the summit with Esteban Chaves (Orica GreenEdge) and Tom Dumoulin (Giant Shimano) after Quintana had fallen off the pace.

The Irishman then produced a brave dig of his own in the last kilometre, and although Chaves and Dumoulin eventually passed him, the 31 year old held on for a hard-fought podium position.

It was Chaves who took the stage victory, outsprinting Dumoulin before crossing the line with a one-second advantage. Roche rolled home just eight seconds further behind, and those results means he trails Chaves by 15 seconds at the top of the overall standings.

Further down the field, Chris Froome took seventh place and limited his losses to four seconds on Quintana and Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha), yet gained a second on Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and seven seconds on Fabio Aru (Astana). Vincenzo Nibali meanwhile, was the day's big loser, with the Astana rider dropping 1min 28sec after being involved in a large crash 30.3km from home.

Orica GreenEdge Colombian cyclist Esteban Chaves Rubio celebrates as he crosses the finish line during the second stage.

With Saturday's team time trial not counting towards the general classification, it was all to play for as the peloton wound their way 158.7km from Alhaurín de la Torre to Caminito del Rey.

Six riders formed the day's main breakaway, but Movistar kept them on a relatively tight leash and had almost brought them back when a large crash decimated the field. Nibali, Peter Sagan (Tinkoff Saxo) and Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) were among the 50-or-so riders who hit the deck, and the long chase back on for Nibali meant he was unable to keep pace on the final climb of the day.

Team Sky were right on the front when the escapees were brought back in the last 10km, with Ian Boswell and Geraint Thomas pushing a hard pace before Roche was called into action and battled brilliantly to seal his highest finish to date in Team Sky colours.

After the stage, Roche was pleased with his first top-three placing of 2015 but admitted he would have changed his tactics if he could have his time again. He told TeamSky.com:

"The plan had always been for me to be there at the finish and I decided to go early when I saw Quintana make his move. I got carried away and went really deep with that attack in the last 500-600m, and that meant I didn't have anything left when Chaves made his move. My head was definitely stronger than my legs.

"I went to prepare for the Vuelta. I wasn't on holidays. Now you shouldn't get carried away. It was the kind of finales that suit me well. I was able to anticipate and make the best of it. 

"With 4 km to go, Chris told me Nico go and follow the early moves. It's good that he let me go. It's unfortunate it ended like this. I got a little carried away.

"I had checked the course and maybe that's what destroyed me eventually. I knew there was this flat section and I waited for Chaves to accelerate before going. But it's not the same in training and in the race. I have the strength and lasting power, but Chaves has this ability to surge that I don't have. He can do like ten start/stops in succession. That's the good thing with being 50 kilos.

"I'm feeling good at the moment though, and am motivated to ride well in a race that I love. We've got some hard days to come and it was nice to be in the mix today.

"We rode well as a team and stuck together as usual. Everyone did a good job to keep us near the front. The roads here are so slippery that positioning is vitally important. Sergio [Henao] went down on a corner today and obviously there was that massive crash with over half the peloton involved.

"Tomorrow looks like a day for the sprinters - there's a little kick with about 10km to go but I don't think that'll have a major bearing on the outcome. Our goal is to keep everyone safe once again and wait for the higher mountains to come. We've got a great GC set up for that and I'm sure Froomey will be right up there in the next week."