John Degenkolb claimed his fourth stage success of the Vuelta a Espana with victory on the race's resumption.
Degenkolb (Giant-Shimano), winner of stages four, five and 12, left it late at the end of the 190.7-kilometre 17th stage from Ortigueira to A Coruna to bid for the line.
But once again the powerful German had too much speed for his rivals as Orica-GreenEdge's Michael Matthews finished second ahead of third-placed Fabian Cancellara (Trek).
Spaniard Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) finished safely in the pack in 32nd place to retain a lead of one minute 36 seconds at the top of the overall rankings.
Chris Froome (Team Sky) was 26th and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) 27th on the day.
Briton Froome is 1min 39secs behind Contador and three seconds behind Valverde ahead of Thursday's challenging 157km route from A Estrada to the summit at Monte Castrove.
Froome lost a loyal team-mate on the race's resumption following Tuesday's rest day as German domestique Christian Knees withdrew due to illness.
Dan Martin came in in 39th place and stays sixth in general classification, while Philip Deignan was 142nd and is now in 45th overall.
