Vuelta a Espana: Froome maintains lead as Trentin wins

Britain’s Chris Froome finished seventh and maintained his lead in the overall standings as Matteo Trentin won stage 13 of the Vuelta a Espana.

The Team Sky rider, who lost time on stage 12 after he crashed twice, retains a 59-second lead over Italian Vincenzo Nibali.

Trentin easily won the final sprint and the Quick-Step Floors rider has now won three stages in this year’s Vuelta.

Team Sky’s Gianni Moscon was third with Sunweb’s Soren Kragh Anderson third.

Italian Trentin has dominated the few sprint stages on what is a largely mountainous three-week trek around Spain.

He also won stages four and 10 and his Quick-Step team have now won five stages in total in this year’s Vuelta.

“It’s amazing, I came to this race with confidence but never expected anything like this,” said Trentin.

“For the team the Vuelta is not finished and we are betting for more.”

Froome is aiming to become just the third rider to win the Tour de France and Vuelta in the same year.

He is also bidding to be the first Briton to win the Spanish race, which is the third of the year’s three grand tours along with the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia.

Today sees the riders tackle a mountainous 175km stage from Ecija to Sierra de La Pandera.