Vuelta a Espana: Great Britain's Simon Yates claims first grand tour stage win

The 24-year-old surged clear with four kilometres remaining and finished 20 seconds clear of second-placed Luis Leon Sanchez

Simon Yates in action (Getty)

Great Britain's Simon Yates clinched his first grand tour stage victory with a late attack on stage six of the Vuelta a Espana.

The 24-year-old Bury-born Orica-Bike Exchange rider, who sat out this year's Tour de France as he was serving a four-month ban for a "non-intentional" anti-doping rule violation, surged clear with four kilometres remaining and finished 20 seconds clear of Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana).

The peloton, containing Colombian race leader Darwin Atapuma and the grand classification contenders, including Team Sky's Chris Froome and Movistar pair Alejandro Valverde and Nairo Quintana, were 29 seconds behind Yates.

BMC Racing's Atapuma remains in the red jersey, with Valverde 28 seconds behind and Froome a further four seconds back, while Quintana and Yates' team-mate Esteban Chaves are both 38secs adrift.

Yates clawed his way into the top 10 and to within one minute 28 seconds of Atapuma as he added another memorable afternoon to the Yates family's stellar year on the bike.

Twin brother Adam finished fourth at the Tour de France and became the first Briton to win the white jersey for the best young rider.

Simon Yates was forced to watch his brother's exploits from a distance as he sat out the race due to a doping ban which came after the team doctor failed to properly apply for a medical exemption for his asthma treatment, but he put that behind him by taking victory at the end of the 163.2km stage from Monforte de Lemos to Luintra in Galicia.

Yates told Eurosport: "We really set it up well. I managed to take my opportunity at the finish. It wasn't planned we just wanted to make it a hard race. It was a pretty crazy day with a lot of twists and turns. I timed my attack to perfection."

It took over 50km for the day's break to form and, when it did, the presence of Jose Mendes (Bora-Argon18), who started the day 2mins 51secs down on Atapuma, ensured it was never able to build up too big of a lead.

Omar Fraile (Dimension Data) attacked on his own after the day's sole categorised climb with under 50km to go, but was caught with 19km left by Mathias Frank (IAM Cycling), Jan Bakelants (AG2R - La Mondiale) and Andrey Zeits (Astana).

Frank then went solo and led until Yates, following a late attack from Movistar's Dani Moreno off the front of the peloton, surged clear with less then 4km to go.

PA.