Jay Vine powered to victory in stage six of the Vuelta a Espana as Torstein Traeen came second to take the overall race lead.
Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) led a solo attack in the final 20km after breaking away from a 10-man group which got away early on the 170.3km stretch across the Pyrenees from Olot in Catalonia to Pal in Andorra.
It was a third individual Vuelta stage win for the 29-year-old Australian.
Norway’s Traeen, 30, finished 54 seconds behind Vine but the Bahrain Victorious rider jumped from 26th to first in the general classification.
Traeen, who was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2022 and announced he was free from the disease the following year, holds a 31-second lead over France’s Bruno Armirail in the overall rankings.
Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS Astana) finished third in the first summit finish of the race and is also third in the GC standings.
Meanwhile, two-time Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard, who began the day with the red jersey, dropped to fifth overall and now trails Traeen by 2mins 33secs.
Great Britain’s James Shaw (EF Education-Easy Post) took sixth place on Thursday and is 21st overall.
Friday’s seventh stage of the Vuelta is another mountain stage, starting at Andorra la Vella and finishing at Cerler.