Team Sky's bid to win the Vuelta a Espana with suffered a major setback on stage 15 as Chris Froome lost over two and a half minutes after Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) launched a lethal ambush.
Froome was left with just one teammate, David López, for longterm support, and although Orica-BikeExchange, Astana and even briefly BMC allied with the Sky rider behind, it was hard for them to do more than limit the gap.
Froome fought hard in the final kilometres to limit the damage himself, but struggled in the final four kilometres, being dropped by Esteban Chaves (Orica-BikeExchange), who strengthened his third place overall. He finished 18th, 2:37 back on Quintana.
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The Briton remains in second place, but over three and a half minutes down. López, having made a huge effort to keep Froome in place was the next Sky rider home at over 41 minutes, whilst the remaining six Sky riders were all in the chase group at 53 minutes.
Froome did not talk to reporters at the finish line, taking an energy drink and heading for the bus immediately, and López swung around just after the finishing gantries. However Leopold Kónig, who finished second last, told reporters, "There was a gap of five or ten seconds at the beginning, and it's probably cost us the whole Vuelta, me and maybe Chris too.
"We were at the front on the downhill, there were maybe two or three groups, we had the first group at 10 seconds and then there were just two or three guys with Chris."
Vuelta a Espana - Stage 15 Video Highlights
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