The Slovenian Primoz Roglic struck another blow in his bid to win the Vuelta a España by extending his overall lead by 33 seconds after finishing second on Friday’s stage 13 on the tail of winner Tadej Pogacar.

Roglic leads Spain’s Alejandro Valverde by two minutes and 25 seconds, while the Slovenian Pogacar climbed into third place overall thanks to his stage win, trailing Roglic by 3min 1sec. Roglic had taken a commanding lead by winning Tuesday’s time trial but had taken it easy in the last two hilly rides along with his fellow general classification contenders.

Yet he took centre stage when the race returned to the mountains in picturesque northern Spain. Chris Froome, twice a winner of the Vuelta, once compared the stage’s summit finish to “riding up a wall” and it was on the final ascent of the stage where the drama began.

The Spaniard Héctor Sáez was leading by over two minutes before reaching the foot of Los Machucos but he was soon overtaken by Bruno Armirail as the climb kicked in, with the peloton closing in behind.

The 2016 winner, Nairo Quintana, launched an attack but was soon reeled in, while Roglic and Pogacar finally broke free with two kilometres to go. The Slovenian duo set their sights on the then leader Pierre Latour, overtaking the Frenchman with little more than a kilometre to go.

Pogacar, aged 20, dug deeper and took his second stage victory of this Vuelta, his grand tour debut, while Roglic came in in his slipstream, with Latour third, 27 seconds back.

Meanwhile, the Giro d’Italia winner, Richard Carapaz, will miss the Tour of Britain after failing to receive his visa in time. The 26-year-old Ecuadorian had been set to race alongside his Movistar teammate Mikel Landa on his debut in the race which begins in Scotland on Saturday.

Carapaz’s absence is a blow for Movistar and the race which has grown in profile in recent years, with Mark Cavendish lining up for a Dimension Data team featuring his trusted leadout man Mark Renshaw who will retire at the end of the season.