MADRID: France’s Alexis Gouegard won the 19th stage of Spain’s Vuelta on Friday as Dutchman Tom Dumoulin extended his lead over Fabio Aru to six seconds.

Gouegard was part of a 24-man breakaway that built up an unassailable lead over the peloton before attacking 22km from the line to take the 185.8km stage from Medina del Campo to Avila ahead Portugal’s Nelson Oliveira and Belgian Maxime Monfort in a time of 4hr 19min 20sec.

The leading contenders were still 15km from the line when Gouegard finished, but Dumoulin managed to eek out another three seconds on Aru in the final kilometer to add to his three-second overnight lead.

Aru will have his chance to overcome the Giant-Alpecin rider on Saturday’s penultimate stage that contains four category one climbs likely to favor the Italian, who is the more accomplished climber.

“These are hard days and everyone is attacking me. I feel good, there is always stress but I can handle it otherwise I wouldn’t be in red today,” Dumoulin told Television Espanola.

“It is going to be a very exciting day tomorrow. Anything can happen, but I am staying positive.”

Aru is aiming to go one better than his second place finish at the Giro d’Italia earlier this year, but was lucky to escape unharmed after suffering a small crash midway through the stage.

The Astana rider quickly caught back up with the peloton, but unlike on Thursday when Dumoulin had to neutralize a series of attacks, Aru didn’t try to distance himself from the 24-year-old.

And it was Dumoulin who finished the stronger through a cobbled final kilometer to slightly increase his lead.

The 175.8km stage on Saturday takes the riders from San Lorenzo de El Escorial to Cercedilla before the race finishes with a parade around the center of Madrid on Sunday.

Cavendish out of Tour of

Mark Cavendish was forced to quit the Tour of Britain after a crash, while Etixx-QuickStep team-mate Matteo Trentin won the sixth stage on Friday.

Cavendish, who had just been named in the Great Britain team for the Road Cycling World Championships later this month, is believed to have hit a parked car around 20 kilometers into the stage.

The full extent of any injuries was still to be revealed by his team, but reports claimed he needed hospital treatment for a suspected shoulder problem.

The Road World Championships start in eight days, leaving Cavendish facing a race to be fit in time for the event in the United States.

Meanwhile, Trentin fought off a strong challenge from MTN-Qhubeka’s Edvald Boasson Hagen as the duo battled for the stage win throughout the 192.7-kilometers route from Stoke to Nottingham.

Norwegian Boasson Hagen, the 2009 Tour of Britain winner, earned enough bonus seconds to enhance his overall lead to 13 seconds ahead of the concluding weekend of racing.

Saturday’s 227.1km seventh stage from Fakenham to Ipswich likely is the final opportunity for Boasson Hagen’s rivals, Team Sky’s Wout Poels chief among them, to dethrone him as Sunday’s central London finale is expected to end in a sprint.