• Team Sky rider now 1 minute and 37 seconds ahead of Vicenzo Nibali • Froome three stages from becoming first Briton to win La Vuelta

Chris Froome took advantage of growing fatigue among his main rivals as the Team Sky rider moved to a step closer to securing a Tour de France and Vuelta a España double. The day after he lost 42 seconds to Vincenzo Nibali, a devastating late break on the road to Santo Toribio de Liébana saw Froome extend his lead over the Italian to 1min 37sec while Sander Armée took the stage 18 victory.

“We saw a lot of people expend a lot of energy today, there were attacks on the penultimate climbs from everyone, all the main GC guys,” Froome said. “It was only Fabio Aru who slipped away, he’s not a threat for us, he’s over five or six minutes away on general classification.

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“Once we got into the last climb our guys set a really high temp at the bottom and I was feeling a lot better today so it was great to gain a little bit of time that I lost. I think certainly some guys paid for their efforts on Wednesday and also for their attacks earlier on today. It’s good to bounce back again and morale is still good and the team still strong. We’re just looking forward to getting though these next couple of days.”

Having admitted he had struggled to cope with gradients up to 25% in the difficult climb of Los Machucos the previous day, Froome broke clear of the depleted peloton 600m from the summit finish, with only Alberto Contador and Michael Woods able to stick with him. The move took 21sec from Nibali as Froome attempts to become the first rider to win the double in the same year since 1978 and the first Briton in history to take the title.

Only three stages remain but Friday’s 150km trek from Caso to Gijón in Asturias features the treacherous San Martin mountain pass.

Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) is third overall, 2min 17sec down but 12sec ahead of Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) in fourth. Trek-Segafredo’s three-times Vuelta winner Contador, in his final professional race, is fifth, 3min 34sec behind.