Vuelta a Espana 2016: Full Standings and Highlights After Stage 19 Results

Chris Froome won Stage 19 of the 2016 Vuelta a Espana after setting the fastest time against the clock over the 37-kilometre individual time trial on Friday. The Team Sky rider finished the stage in 46 minutes and 33 seconds, 2:16 ahead of overall race leader Nairo Quintana, who keeps the red jersey despite finishing outside the top 10. 

But Froome has closed the overall gap on Quintana to just 1:21 ahead of Stage 20. Froome finished 43 seconds ahead of Movistar's Jonathan Castroviejo, who had earlier set a seemingly unbeatable time.

Here are the final results from the stage, per Sky Cycling:

Here's what the overall race table looks like:

Recap

It was Yves Lampaert of Etixx-QuickStep who set the early pace to beat. He finished in 47:59, but the staggered start and finish times meant some of the best time trialists were still waiting to begin their respective rides.

Chief among them was the Spaniard, Castroviejo. The Movistar rider simply blew away the competition when he made 47:17 the new mark to beat.

Castroviejo is experienced on the time trial and merited top spot on the provisional leaderboard. He'd taken it from Team Giant-Alpecin's Tobias Ludvigsson after the Swede temporarily enjoyed the lead when he beat Lampaert's finishing mark by just under two seconds.

However, the big issue of the day was how much Team Sky's Froome could close the gap on Quintana. Froome's challenge was to make up a 3:37 deficit to Quintana in the general classification.

That was a tall order, but it was one Froome seemed determined to meet when he pushed out to begin at some speed. Froome accelerated further once Quintana blasted onto the track.

It didn't take the Team Sky man long to shave 14 seconds off Quintana's lead. But Froome was taking risks on his ride, maintaining a strong pace on the corners amid some fierce winds.

CyclingTips editor Neal Rogers noted how history didn't favour Quintana in a time trial:

So it proved as Quintana soon trailed Froome by almost 30 seconds. Meanwhile, Esteban Chaves of Orica-BikeExchange and Tinkoff's Alberto Contador were also pushing to make up ground in the GC.

Contador led Chaves by a half-minute, and he also made a strong push for Castroviejo's mark at the first time check.

Yet, Froome was the rider to watch when he closed to 28 seconds quicker than Castroviejo's mark as he approached the intermediate checkpoint. It was a reminder of how fast Froome had started.

Cycling writer Mihai Cazacu chose this phrase to sum up Froome's superswift ride:

More importantly, Froome's incredible pace meant a sluggish Quintana was gifting him seconds in the GC standings. There were 46 seconds between the two when Quintana neared the checkpoint.

Sky Sports Cycling detailed how the GC's top contenders were faring at this stage of the time trial:

Froome's advantage soon became more than a minute over Quintana. Team Sky's main man then took down Castroviejo's mark, moving 39 seconds quicker at the second split.

As for Quintana, he now found himself trailing his main rival by just short of 90 seconds.

Froome added another 15 seconds to his lead early in the final section, as the GC was opening up again. Vuelta a Espana relayed footage of Froome's incredible pace:

He was two minutes ahead of Quintana for the final kilometre. Froome eventually closed out at 2:16 ahead of Quintana.

The race's official site relayed highlights of the winner crossing the line:

Rob Wotton of Sky Sports News HQ summed up what Froome must be thinking leading into Saturday's stage:

Still, Froome remains cautious about his chances, despite his fine work to close the gap, Sky Sports:

There is still one more day of tough racing tomorrow. Let's see. Quintana still has more than one minute's advantage, but we are going to keep fighting all the way.

We'll see tomorrow. I'll speak with my team-mates tonight and let's see, but I think Nairo Quintana with Movistar, he has a really good team around him and it is going to be difficult to beat him.

Froome's amazing ride means the race is wide open again ahead of Stage 20. Quintana will still fancy his chances in the mountains, but Froome has given him plenty to think about.