Clément Champoussin secured a first ever Grand Tour stage victory after a resurgent final 1.6km at Alto Castro de Herville ©Getty Images

France’s Clément Champoussin of AG2R Citroën Team won the penultimate stage of the Vuelta a España, while Slovenian Primož Roglič of Jumbo-Visma moved closer to his third successive victory in Spain by extending his lead in the general classification to 2mins 38secs.

The 202.2-kilometre stage 20 route started in Sanxenxo, and featured five climbs and nearly 3,500 metres of elevation before finishing at Alto Castro de Herville.

Champoussin had been part of a breakaway that was caught on the day’s final climb of 9.9km at 4.8 per cent, but with around 1.6km remaining he began his surge for the win, eventually finishing in 5 hrs 21min 50sec - six seconds clear of Roglič in second - to secure a first ever Grand Tour stage victory.

Adam Yates of Britain and Ineos Grenadiers completed the podium in third after pipping Spain’s Enric Mas of Movistar Team to third in 5:21:58.

Mas remains second in the general classification, although Olympic road time trial gold medallist Roglič is firmly on course to win La Vuelta once again.

The general classification top three is now rounded off by Bahrain Victorious’ Australian rider Jack Haig, looking to finish on the podium for the first time at a Grand Tour,

Haig finished fifth on stage 20, 12 seconds behind Champoussin, and now has an advantage of exactly one minute over Yates in third in the individual standings after an extraordinary situation involving Movistar Team’s Miguel Ángel López.

The Colombian rider started the day in third and won stage 18 on Thursday (September 2).

However, López has now dramatically abandoned his Vuelta campaign, failing to finish the stage after missing an important split with around 60km remaining.

This year’s La Vuelta draws to a close tomorrow with a 33.8km individual time-trial from Padrón to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia.

In the third stage of the 2021 Challenge by La Vuelta, the Netherlands’ Annemiek van Vleuten of Movistar Team stormed to victory in Pereiro de Aguiar, finishing 2min 48sec clear of Liane Lippert of Germany and Team DSM and Poland’s Katarzyna Niewiadoma of Canyon-SRAM in second and third respectively.

Van Vleuten now leads the general classification, leapfrogging Switzerland’s Marlen Reusser of Alé BTC Ljubljana at the top and building a 1min 34sec overall lead going into tomorrow’s final stage - a 107.4km flat route which also finishes in Santiago de Compostela.