Chris Froome increased his lead in the Vuelta a España during a fifth stage won by Alexey Lutsenko of Kazakhstan.

Froome started the day two seconds ahead of a trio of riders and with most rivals inside a minute of him. But after most of them struggled through a hilly stage and then toiled on the first summit finish, Froome looks to be in command of a race that he has finished as runner-up on three occasions.

“Looking at the time gaps now, the general classification is definitely taking a bit more shape,” Froome said. “And if you think there’s just a three-kilometre climb to the finish, I can definitely be happy.”

Lutsenko left Marco Haller behind at the start of the stage’s final climb, a short but steep trudge up to the Ermita de Santa Lucía church and its views of the Mediterranean Sea. Lutsenko finished the 175.7km (109.1-mile) ride from Benicàsssim to Alcossebre in 4hr 24min 58sec. It was a first grand tour stage win for the 24-year-old Astana rider.

After a small group of breakaway riders trickled across the line, Froome stuck to the wheel of Alberto Contador as the two traded attacks with Esteban Chaves.

Froome increased his race lead over Tejay van Garderen to 10 seconds. Nicolas Roche, David de la Cruz, Fabio Aru, Vincenzo Nibali and Romain Bardet all lost even more time to the four-time Tour de France winner.

Chaves is third overall, 11sec back. Nibali is now 36sec behind in sixth place, while Aru trails by 49 in seventh and Bardet is 12th at 1:37. Contador remained over three minutes behind.

“I’m surprised to see Vincenzo Nibali and Fabio Aru lose some time today – and Romain Bardet, but it’s a long race,” Froome said.

The route took riders over four category-two climbs and a category-three, before a push up the final category-three ascent. The sixth stage on Thursday is a 204.4km run from Vila-real to Sagunt including four category-three and one category-two climbs.