Team Sky's Chris Froome has admitted that he did not have the legs as he dropped to fifth in the General Classification on the ninth stage of the Vuelta a España.
Winner Anacona won the stage and Froome came in eighteenth but lost his fourth place in the bid for the Red Jersey.
"Conditions were really tough out there," Froome said to the Team Sky website. "I think we can take a lot of good away from that stage in terms of how we rode as a team. I'm so so proud of how the guys rode today, they did such a good job. They kept me at the front throughout the stage.
"In the final I didn't have the legs to follow the top guys when they went. But I think given where I've come from on the back of the Tour and the build-up into the race I'm really happy with how things have gone so far. I can definitely feel I'm starting to pick up that race rhythm back into my legs and I'm looking forward to the second half of this race."
Tuesday's tenth stage is a 36.7km individual time trial and speaking about this, Froome said: "I'm going to go and see the itme trial course tomorrow and see what we're up against.
"It's relatively short compared to time trials elsewhere. But I enjoy time trialling and I'm hoping to make the most of it.
"I think we've come to see that Contador is going extremely well. He's got over his injuries pretty quickly and he's going well - as are Nairo Quintana and Rodriguez. The usual guys we expected for the general classification. It's a huge fight here and it's going to be a big race all the way to the end. Every second here or there is going to count."