Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) continues to hold on to second place overall in the Vuelta a España despite struggling on the climb to La Cubilla on stage 16 on Monday.

Astana suddenly increased his pace with 8km to go, but it did not put the Spaniard out of his misery. Also, Miguel Angel Lopez showed his first vicious acceleration, apparently recovering from a tough day in Acebo.

However, a second attack by Lopez with Tadey Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) on board upset Valverde, who asked teammate Marc Soler for help.

With Soler's support, Valverde eventually lost 21 seconds; the 39-year-old said he would have preferred not to lose that time, but he was not overly bothered by it either.

"It went well. It wasn't my best day, but it wasn't my worst either," Valverde said after the race.

Valverde pointed out that having Pogacar and Lopez down with Roglic had put the boot on the other foot in the acebo.

"One day you might gain 30 or 40 seconds, the next day you lose it. Soler was in good shape and guided me well."

"I was in good shape.

There were hopes that Movistar might be more aggressive in the third and final stage, which takes place in the mountains of northern Spain. However, with Valverde not in good form, Movistar opted for a low-key race throughout.

Meanwhile, Valverde's teammate Nairo Quintana seemed decidedly off the pace, losing over two and a half minutes to the Roglic group and dropping to sixth overall. Rafal Mayka (Bora-Hansgrohe) moved ahead of the Colombians to take fifth overall.

However, although Valverde dropped to 2:46 overall, he remains the best rival for Roglic, and if the Slovenian star shows weakness, the reigning world champion could still challenge him in the next five stages.

"We'll have to see," Valverde said. 'There are a lot of chances to win, a lot of chances to lose. This is not over yet."