Nairo Quintana ended Chris Froome's hopes of winning this year's Vuelta ©Getty Images

Colombia’s Nairo Quintana is poised to win the Vuelta a España after maintaining his advantage over Britain’s Chris Froome on the penultimate stage of the race, which was won by France’s Pierre Latour.

Froome had reduced the Movistar rider’s advantage to 1min and 21 seconds after a superb individual time trial yesterday, but only had today’s 193 kilometre mountain stage from Benidorm to Alto de Aitana to overhaul his rival, with only a sprint stage to come tomorrow.

The battle for the final podium spot, though, took centre stage on the penultimate climb of the race as Orica-BikeExchange rider Esteban Chaves launched an attack to overhaul Spain’s Alberto Contador into third.

Chaves, who slipped out of the podium positions after a heavy time loss yesterday, was aided by several of his team-mates after they dropped back from the early breakaway.

The Colombian set off in pursuit of the leaders of the stage, with Spain’s Luis Leon Sanchez, Switzerland’s Mathias Frank, Colombia’s Darwin Atapuma and Latour battling for the victory.

Atapuma accelerated in the final five kilometres but was followed by Latour and Frank, although the latter eventually faded out of contention.

Victory was eventually claimed by Latour, with the 22-year-old Frenchman outsprinting Atapuma to cross the line in a time of 5hr, 19min and 41sec.

Despite the disappointment for Atapuma, who ended two seconds down, it would prove a superb day for Colombian riders with Chaves pushing himself up to third after ending 3:17 down on the stage winner.

Pierre Latour triumphed on the penultimate stage of the race ©Getty Images
Pierre Latour triumphed on the penultimate stage of the race ©Getty Images

He would finish over one minute ahead of Contador, who was dislodged by the red jersey group as Froome repeatedly accelerated in a last ditch bid to overhaul Quintana.

The Colombian was able to match each of Froome’s efforts to end the Britain’s attempts to become the first rider since Bernard Hinault in 1978 to win the Tour de France and Vuelta a España in the same season.

Quitana eventually finished two seconds clear of Froome on the stage to effectively claim his second Grand Tour, having won the Giro d’Italia in 2014.

He will begin tomorrow’s ceremonial stage with a 1:23 advantage over the Team Sky rider, while Chaves is 13 seconds ahead of fourth placed Contador.

The International Cycling Union (UCI) WorldTour race will conclude with a 104km sprinters stage from Las Rozas to Madrid.