Alejandro Valverde insisted he is not the sole leader of the Movistar team at the Vuelta a Espaņa, despite pulling away from teammate Nairo Quintana in Tuesday`s stage 16 time trial. On Monday`s rest-day, team management was keen to play down any notion that having two riders in contention for the overall title could be a potential source of controversy, but the Cantabria time trial was always going to see the leadership debate back in the headlines in the following morning`s newspapers. As was widely expected, Valverde, who started the day second overall behind Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) and seven seconds ahead of Quintana in third, performed better than his teammate on the rolling 32km course between Santillana del Mar and Torrelavega.ADVERTISEMENT Though perhaps not as much as predicted, the 35 seconds that separated the pair on the stage means that Valverde is now 42 seconds ahead of Quintana, who slipped off the podium at the hands of Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo). `In reality, I`m closer to first place - you have to acknowledge that - but that doesn`t mean that I`m the sole leader,` Valverde said. `We also have Nairo, who`s going well. It`s clear that I did better in the time trial, but we`ll see how it is in the mountains that are coming up.`
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