The 31-year-old Briton won the 168.6 kilometres stage from Colunga to Pena Cabarga with a sublime sprint atop a steep 6km finishing climb, five years after winning the same stage in 2011.

Froome, the three-time Tour de France winner, managed to break clear of the peloton along with race leader Nairo Quintana of Movistar in the final kilometre of the climb to Pena Cabarga before beating the Colombian with a late sprint.

As a result Froome collected 10 bonus seconds, which sees him rise one place in the general classification and close the gap to Quintana to 54 seconds.

Spain's Alejandro Valverde, also of Movistar, finished six seconds behind in third place and now drops to third overall, 1min 5sec behind his team-mate.

The final climb was just under 6km long but the race leaders left it late to mount their challenges for victory.

With 1.8km to go, Colombian Esteban Chaves, of Orica-BikeExchange, was the first to make his move as he built up a lead of around 16 seconds.

Race leader Quintana waited even longer, however, until he reached around 800m from the finish.

Froome then launched an attack of his own after the pair had passed Chaves and dropped the likes of Spaniard Alberto Contador.

Quintana and Froome were then forced to battle right until the end, but the double Olympic time trial bronze medallist's kick was too great pushing him to a narrow win.

"I have got some special memories from 2011 here, but today, just to add to that is an incredible feeling," said Froome.

"Definitely Quintana is really strong at the moment and he has the leader's jersey. 

"I'm just trying to do as much as I can day by day now, and I hope that obviously I can keep getting closer to him.

"I want as much time, he wants as much time - that's what makes the race exciting. 

"It's good that we're in this position."

Tomorrow's 12th stage will take the riders 193.2km from Los Corrales de Buelna to Bilbao.