The Orica-BikeExchange rider completed the 163.2 kilometre journey from Monforte de Lemos to Luintra in 4 hours 5min 0sec to secure the first Grand Tour stage win of his career.  

Yates, 24, attacked out of the peloton with around 4km remaining and raced away for victory by 20 seconds over runner-up Luis-Leon Sanchez of Spain.

"We set it up really well there in the beginning and I managed to take my opportunity there at the finish," said Yates.

"That wasn't planned.

"I just wanted to make a hard race and I'm very happy.

"It was pretty crazy - lots of twists and turns and hard roads there as well - but I managed to come down perfectly there in the finish and I timed my attack to perfection."

Victory for the twin of fellow cyclist Adam Yates was his second win of the season and comes only six weeks after he returned from a four-month suspension for testing positive for the banned asthma drug terbutaline, following an in-competition drug test after stage six of the Paris-Nice in March.

All of the main contenders followed in the main body of the peloton 29 seconds after Yates, meaning BMC Racing’s Atapuma remains top of the general classification.

The Colombian is 28 seconds ahead of home favourite Alejandro Valverde of Movistar, while Britain’s Chris Froome of Team Sky is a further four seconds back in third.

Yates has risen to 10^th from 15^th in the general classification, 1:28 down on Atapuma.

Orica-BikeExchange claimed the Briton's positive test at the International Cycling Union (UCI) World Tour race had been due to an "administrative error".

They argued that the substance was being used in the ongoing treatment of his asthma problems but failed to apply for the required Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUE), with the substance appearing on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) banned list.

The seventh stage of the Vuelta a España, scheduled for tomorrow, is a 158.5km ride over three category-three climbs from Maceda to Puebla de Sanabria.