Esteban Chaves back in red after doubling up in stage six at Sierra de Cazorla

Just as he had done on Sunday's second stage to Caminito del Rey, Orica-GreenEdge climber Chaves danced clear on the deciding third-category climb of the 200km stage in Andalusia to take his second - and his team's third - victory in the opening week of the Vuelta.

Having left Britain’s Steven Cummings of MTN-Qhubeka – the last survivor of a group of six escapees – for dead on the steepest ramp of the final climb, Chaves crossed the line five seconds ahead of chasing duo Dan Martin (Cannondale-Garmin) and Dumoulin, the overnight race leader of the Giant-Alpecin team.

A second victory for Chaves saw the 25-year-old swap his white jersey for red just one day after dropping behind Dumoulin in the overall standings. Chaves now leads his Dutch rival by 10 seconds on GC, with Martin moving above fellow Irishman Nicolas Roche (Team Sky) into third place at 33 seconds.

Roche finished in a group alongside Sky team-mate Chris Froome and the other race favourites 11 seconds down on Chaves after yet another sweltering day in southern Spain.

“I can’t believe it. It’s really unbelievable. It was a long, hot, hard stage today,” a beaming Chaves told Eurosport. “Midway I spoke to [team-mate] Mat Hayman and he told me, ‘If you have good legs, you race – because you never know what will happen tomorrow’.

“[Directeur sportif] Neil Stephens told me that the first bit of the climb was really steep so I knew where to make my move. Daryl [Impey] put me in a really good position and I started the climb in first position. When I saw the others suffering I went for it.

“I will say again – the team is really amazing. Caleb Ewan won yesterday but today he went for bottles. This team is like a family for me. I’m so happy here.”

A fast and furious start to the stage saw the likes of Adam Hansen (Lotto-Soudal), Sylvain Chavanel (IAM Cycling) and Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) all try their luck in breaking away – but to no avail.

A pace approaching 48kmph in the opening hour saw attack after attack foiled over the undulating roads of Andalusia, with Slovenian debutant Matej Mohoric (Cannondale-Garmin) withdrawing from the race after numerous trips back to the medical car.

After 60km of riding a break finally stuck – not before the irrepressible Sagan had flirted with another attempt at edging clear.

Cyril Gautier (Europcar), Niki Terpstra (Etixx-QuickStep), Kristijan Durasek (Lampre-Merida), Peter Velits (BMC) and Steven Cummings (MTN-Qhubeka) were given short shrift by LottoNL-Jumbo and Team Colombia, the latter eventually sending Miguel Angel Rubiano up the road in pursuit.

Despite an inopportune crash, Rubiano managed to bridge the gap before being promptly dropped with 110km remaining. The Colombian fought back and then established himself as part of the group, which held a maximum lead of four and a half minutes over the peloton.

The Movistar team of Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde helped lead the chase alongside Dumoulin’s Giant-Alpecin squad, with the gap coming down to three minutes by the time Gautier led the break over the summit of the Cat.3 Alto de Bazea with 55km remaining.

With the peloton closing in, British veteran Cummings used a Rubiano attack as a springboard to soloing clear in pursuit of glory. A stage winner in the 2012 Vuelta – and more recently in July’s Tour de France – the MTN-Qhubeka rider held a slender 30 second lead as he approached the final climb to the finish line.

In his wake the peloton had gobbled up the remaining escapees ahead of the deciding 3.3km climb to Sierra de Cazorla.

Chaves made his move early, darting clear with just over 2km remaining and ahead of the 15% ramp on which an exhausted Cummings came to a near standstill. The diminutive Chaves soared past Cummings to open up a small gap over the pack.

Dumoulin waited until the road flattened out after the punishing ramp before leading the chase. The red jersey was caught inside the final kilometre by Martin, who once again seemed to time his attack a little too late.

Having finished runner-up twice in the Tour, Martin was forced to settle for a third second-place after catching Dumoulin but running out of enough road to reel in the Vuelta’s in-form rider, Chaves.

COMING UP: Friday’s 191km stage seven from Jodar to Capilleira is an undulating affair with one Cat.3 climb ahead of the race’s first Cat.1 summit finish – a chance for the big race favourites to come to the fore.