Dutchman Tom Dumoulin rocketed into the lead at the Vuelta a Espana when he crushed his main rivals in Wednesday's 17th stage time trial.
He snatched the race leader’s red jersey from Spain’s Joaquim Rodriguez to put himself in a strong position to challenge for a debut grand tour triumph.
One of the world's top trialists, Giant-Alpecin rider Dumoulin posted a scorching time of 46.01 over the 38km course in Burgos to leapfrog overnight Rodriguez of Spain (Katusha), Italian Fabio Aru of Italy (Astana) and Poland's Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo).
With just four stages remaining of the three-week race, the 24-year-old from Maastricht holds a slender three-second advantage over Aru in second.
The Italian Astana rider was just under two minutes slower than Dumoulin in the time trial and will look to put his climbing ability to good use on the remaining stages as he bids to improve on his second-placed finish in this year's Giro d'Italia.
"There are still four stages to go," Aru said. "This Vuelta is not over."
Rodriguez is more than a minute back in third overall and Majka nearly two and-a-half minutes adrift in fourth.
Dumoulin, the first Dutchman since Joop Zoetemelk at the 1980 Tour de France to lead a grand tour in the final week, acknowledged there was still a long way to go.
"Of course this Vuelta is not over yet," he said.
"I still haven't thought about what might happen over the next few days and I want to celebrate this win with my team mates," he added.
"I am not worried about any (of the remaining stages) but Friday's is the toughest and Astana will do everything they can to take away my leader's jersey.”
Ireland's Nicholas Roche is in 30th position overall, more than 46 minutes back on the leader. He finished 49th on Wednesday's stage, nearly 50 minutes behind Dumoulin.
