The general classification contenders took a back seat for the duration of the stage, a flat 200 kilometre route from Requena to Gandia, with tomorrow’s individual time trial firmly in their minds.

France’s Pierre Rolland and Quentin Jauregui were among four riders in an early breakaway move, with Japan’s Fumiyuki Beppu and Italy’s Mattia Cattaneo joining the pair at the front of the race.

They were eventually joined by Belgium’s Louis Vervaeke and opened up a five minute advantage by the top of the Puerto de Casa del Alto, the only climb of the day.

As they breached the 100km to go mark, the peloton’s efforts to capture the break intensified, with teams vying to give their sprinters a rare chance for a stage win.

The break was eventually caught with 11km remaining and although Belgium’s Jan Bakelants briefly attacked from the peloton, a bunch sprint was always likely.

Nielsen secured the stage win in a time of 4hr, 54min and 31sec, with the Orica-Bike Exchange rider ending narrowly ahead of Germany’s Nikias Arndt.

The Netherlands’ Jempy Drucker, winner of stage 16, finished third on the same time as the winner.

Race leader Nairo Quintana remains 3min 37sec clear of Tour de France winner Chris Froome of Britain in the overall standings.

Froome will hope to cut the gap to the Colombian in tomorrow’s 37km individual time trial from Xabia to Calp, but Quintana looks increasingly likely to win the International Cycling Union (UCI) World Tour race.

His fellow Colombian Esteban Chaves is 20 seconds behind from in third.