After no riders formed a breakaway last time out, seven riders went clear this time – Thomas de Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) among them, alongside Davide Villella (Cannondale-Drapac) and Ag2r-La Mondiale duo Axel Domont and Alexandre Geniez.

Fernando Orjuela (Manzana Postobon), Fabricio Ferrai (Caja Rural-Seguros) and Anthony Turgis (Cofidis) were the ProConti riders up the road, while UAE Team Emirates’ Przemyslaw Niemiec (UAE Team Emirates) bridged across.

QuickStep Floors, with Yves Lampaert in the red jersey, brought the gap down and it fluctuated between three-and-a-half and five minutes for a large chunk of the stage.

Domont had a solo lead as the race entered Andorra, but with Team Sky taking over the pace-setting in the peloton, the gap to all the leaders rapidly diminished.

UAE Team Emirates duo Rui Costa and Darwin Atapuma attacked on the Col de la Rabassa – the upping of the pace putting paid to the break once and for all – but the main GC contenders remained in the peloton.

Froome promptly accelerated, but Nibali’s group made the split and the Italian opened his sprint up with perfect timing to claim the stage win and ten bonus seconds.

David de la Cruz (QuickStep Floors) was second, but it is third-placed Froome who now leads overall, with a two-second lead over the Spaniard and BMC Racing duo Nicolas Roche and Tejay van Garderen.

Vuelta a Espana 2017: stage three – result

1) Vincenzo Nibali (ITA) – Bahrain-Merida – 4.01.22
2) David de la Cruz (ESP) – QuickStep Floors – ST
3) Chris Froome (GBR) – Team Sky
4) Romain Bardet (FRA) – Ag2r-La Mondiale
5) Johan Esteban Chaves (COL) – Orica-Scott
6) Fabio Aru (ITA) – Astana
7) Nicolas Roche (IRL) – BMC Racing
8) Tejay van Garderen (USA) – BMC Racing
9) Domenico Pozzovivo (ITA) – Ag2r-La Mondiale
10) Michael Woods (CAN) – Cannondale-Drapac +25”

General classification

1) Chris Froome (GBR) – Team Sky – 8.53.44hrs
2) David de la Cruz (ESP) – QuickStep Floors +2”
3) Nicolas Roche (IRL) – BMC Racing – ST
4) Tejay van Garderen (USA) – BMC Racing
5) Vincenzo Nibali (ITA) – Bahrain-Merida +10”
6) Johan Esteban Chaves (COL) – Orica-Scott +11”
7) Fabio Aru (ITA) – Astana +38”
8) Adam Yates (GBR) – Orica-Scott +39”
9) Domenico Pozzovivo (ITA) – Ag2r-La Mondiale +43”
10) Romain Bardet (FRA) – Ag2r-La Mondiale +48”
11) Simon Yates (GBR) – Orica-Scott – ST