Good afternoon all, Tom Owen here standing in for the inimitable Felix Lowe. You can think of me as the flustered substitute teacher of live text commentary.

Vuelta a España

Stage 8 | Mountain | Men | 26.08.2017

Completed

HellínXorret de Catí

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Updated 26/08/2017 at 15:32 GMT

Thank you for joining me today for La Vuelta Stage 8, you can find the report of the stage here:

26/08/2017 at 17:40

So Froome stays in red and actually extends his lead over most of his rivals. Contador gains time.

That was really ballsy stuff from Froome. He didn't need to set down a marker, but he tightens his grasp on the Vuelta that little bit more.

And the GC favourites group behind roll over about 15 seconds in arrears to Froome.

In the end, Froome, Contador arrive together.

Contador gaps Froome with 100m to go.

It's Froome and Contador vs 'the rest' now.

Alaphillippe wins the stage, then Polanc. Majka third.

Alaphillippe has done it!

They're going gull gas now

It's a shoot-out now between the three - and you'd have to back Alaphillippe as the guy with the best kick.

And Polanc has caught up to Alaphillipe/Majka and blows right by them. The trio of leaders have less than a kilometre to go...

Froome and Contador are together now on the descent.

Froome enters the hoardings, crosses the KOM marker and readies himself for the descent.

Froome chugs past De Vreese and Contador is nowhere to be seen now. This is incredibly dominant stuff from the Sky leader.

3km

Majka and Alaphillippe are on the descent!

The gap between Froome/Contador and the other GC riders has billowed out very quickly.

Contador is eual to the acceleration from Froome, but Nibali is gone now. As are Woods, Chaves.

And Froome goes!

Majka is having another dig up front, they're knocking chunks out of each other as they near the 3km to go mark.

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