Samuel Sanchez seemed to be launching one of his trademark attacks on the final descent in stage 19 of the Vuelta a Espana. However, the Spaniard just wanted to stay safe and waited for the bunch at the bottom.

Samuel Sánchez of the BMC Racing Team took a flyer off the front to stay safe on a descent late in Friday's stage of the Vuelta a España on the way to holding onto his seventh place overall with two days to go. Sánchez said his move – which put the top contenders on the defensive – was not an attack.

"It was more to do my own pace on the descent because I preferred to avoid crashing as happened to Dario Cataldo of Team Sky," Sánchez said.

After Sánchez was brought back, Adam Hansen (Lotto-Belisol) countered an attack by BMC Racing Team's Danilo Wyss with four kilometers to go and went on to solo to the stage win, five seconds ahead of John Degenkolb (Team Giant-Shimano) and Filippo Pozzato.

Sánchez finished 20th and in the same time as the peloton. He is 6:59 behind race leader Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) and said he will keep fighting all the way to Sunday's finish in Santiago de Compostela.

"Tomorrow will be the last tough stage and Contador will defend his red jersey, while the rest of us will try to move up," the past Olympic road race champion said. "How much depends on how much strength you have left. For sure, this Vuelta has been really spectacular until now and that has been good for the fans."

BMC Racing Team Sport Director Fabio Baldato said he liked the squad's aggressive approach near the end of the 180.5-km stage.

"We waited until the last climb and then it was full gas and really nervous," he said. "Our guys were there and Samuel was always in the front to be safe."