Alberto Contador strengthened his grip on the Maglia Rosa on Sunday, finishing third behind race winner Mikel Landa on stage 15 of the Giro d'Italia.
The 25-year-old Landa, riding for Astana Pro Team, passed Katusha's Yuri Tofimov on the closing stages of the 165-kilometre mountain course between Marostica and Madonna di Campiglio before crossing the line in a time of four hours 22.35 minutes.
It marked the first Grand Tour victory of Landa's career, with Tofimov close on his heels and Contador five seconds behind the winner.
That placing saw the Spanish Tinkoff Saxo rider increase his lead in the general classification by seven seconds over Landa's Astana team-mate Fabio Aru.
Landa, himself, climbed to fourth on the leaderboard, 4:46 down on Contador, but admits it is all about the team doing well.
He said: "It's an important win for me and the team, because when you work the way we have today, a win like this belongs to everyone.
"Our objective is to put Aru in the best possible position in GC. We want first place with him but we know it is difficult. Second place looks fairly safe and we'll try to win this Giro using our superiority in numbers."
Contador also had praise for Astana and their successful race strategy.
"Astana were very strong today: it was like a team time trial with me on their wheel," he said.
"My legs were good today and I would have liked to win the stage but there were lots of attacks and counter-attacks and it was impossible to control all of them."
