Tom Dumoulin of Giant Alpecin has won the ninth stage of the 70th Vuelta a España.
After a dramatic stage eight which forced Tejay Van Garderen, Dan Martin of Cannondale-Garmin, Nacer Bouhanni, Kris Broeckmans, Jasper Stuyven and Peter Sagan out of the race, stage nine was a 168.3km stage from Torrevieja to Cumbre del Sol.
Team Sky's Geraint Thomas got himself into the early break along with Nikolas Maes, Pieter Serry and Maxime Bouet (Etixx-Quick Step), , Lorrenzo Manzin (FDJ), Mattia Cattaneo (Lampre-Merida), Yohan Bagot ( Cofidis), Maarten Tjallingii (LottoNL-Jumbo), Omar Fraile (Caja Rural), Tony Hurel (Europcar), Danny Van Poppel (Trek), Pavel Brutt (Saxo-Tinkoff) and Jim Songezo (MTN-Qhubeka).and they were 3.15 ahead of the peloton which included race leader Estaban Chaves after 23 kilometres.
Alexis Gougeard was 1.10 behind but he was able to bridge the gap and joined the leaders as the gap went out to 4.32 after 45 kilometres.
Thomas Degand abandoned as the gap went out to 5.30 and then there was another big crash. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Tom Dumoulin (Giant - Alpecin), Fabio Aru, Mikel Landa (Astana), Samuel Sánchez (BMC), Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R - La Mondiale) and John Degenkolb (Giant - Alpecin) were all involved but thankfully, they were able to all continue.
The leaders were still 4.04 ahead with 54kms left and their lead stood at 2.26 as they took on the category two Alto de Puig Llorença for the first time.
Omar Fraile, the KOM leader was on the front on the climb which has ramps of up to 28%. With the police keeping the crowds back, the riders were able to make their way up the climb safely, Freille started to struggle but then got a second wind and started to come back as Catteneo of Lampre-Merida led the way.
Fraile put in a great burst of effort and passed everyone to take the points on the summit with 41.7kms to go.
The group now consisted of eight riders including Geraint Thomas along with Jim, Tjallingii, Bagot, Bouet, Cattaneo, Fraile and Serry and they had a lead of 1.57 with 32kms remaining.
Maarten Tjallingii took the sprint with 13.5kms left but this group of eight were only thirty seconds clear but they were able to put in another twenty seconds before they started on the modest ramps of Alto de Puig Llorença.
Brut and Maxime Bouet attacked the others in the front group and were ten seconds ahead going into the final ten kilometres of the stage.
The peloton closed in at speeds of 71kmh with 4kms to go and Thomas, Brutt and Bouet's time on the front was over and the attacks started.
Nairo Quintana. Joaquim Rodriquez and Valverde all raised the pace until Tom Dumoulin kicked off with 2.7kms to go whilst Chris Froome got himself back into the group of favourites.
Dumoulin attacked with two kilometres left but could not shake anyone. So Aru of Astana tried and then with 1.7kms left, Dumoulin tried once more.
Nicholas Roche was also in the group of favourites as Dumolin put ten seconds into the group which included Froome and Roche.
Rafal Majka of Tinkoff Saxo broke away from the favourites group as Dumoulin went under the flam rouge. Froome went after Majka and was closing in on Dumolin with 600 metres remaining.
Dumoulin was caught with 250metres to go and Froome went away but Tom Doumoulin refused to be denied and he got past Froome and Rodriquez, fifteen metres before the line to win in 4.09.57 beating Froome, Rodriguez, Aru, Majka, Quintana, Valverde, Roche and Meintjes.
Froome said: "I am gutted I thought I had it. "
"Tom Dumoulin is in incredible form and hats off to him. My team did an incredible job today. i have it everything. I tried to ride conservatively and save my legs for the top but I am happy that I did not lose too much time today."
Tom Dumoulin is the new race leader with a lead of 57 seconds ahead of Rodriquez, Chaves, Roche and Valverde. Chris Froome is back up to eighth place.