Chris Froome extends lead after stage nine win

Chris Froome took another big step towards completing an historic Tour de France-Vuelta a España double by claiming stage nine of La Vuelta on Sunday to extend his race lead.

Froome on course for historic double

Froome attacked with 500m to go on the category-one climb of a 174km stage from Orihuela to Benitachell to win in a time of 4 hours 7minutes 13 seconds from his closest challenger Esteban Chaves with Canadian Michael Woods coming home third.

Chaves slips 36 seconds behind Froome in the general classification with Ireland's Nicolas Roche falls 1 minute 5 seconds back in third.

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But Froome, aiming to become only the third man to win the Tour and La Vuelta in the same year, is beginning to amass a significant advantage over the rest of his general classification rivals.

Vincenzo Nibali was 14 seconds back on the stage to slip 1 minute 17 seconds behind Froome in fourth with Fabio Aru a further 16 seconds back in seventh overall.