Argentina's Juan Jose Haedo won stage 16 of the Tour of Spain in a bunch sprint as Spaniard Juan Jose Cobo retained the overall lead.
Britain's Bradley Wiggins remains in third place, 51 seconds behind Cobo, after finishing 13th in Haro.
After taking the lead from Wiggins on Sunday's finish in the Angliru, 30-year-old Cobo remains in control of the overall classification.
The Vuelta a Espana finishes in Madrid on 11 September.
Cobo, who finished 10th, holds a 20-second lead over Wiggins' teammate Chris Froome, who finished 22nd in stage 16, of the Sky Team in the overall standings.
Haedo beat Italy's Alessandro Petacchi of Lampre to the stage win in a sprint finish at the end of the 203.6 kilometre ride from Villa Romana La Olmeda to Haro in northern Spain. Third was another Italian, Daniele Bennati of Leopard Trek.
The final sprint took the riders around a traffic circle, but some of them, including Slovakia's Peter Sagan of Liquigas, ended up taking it in the wrong direction and losing time.
Haedo admitted he was lucky in the last kilometre.
"The truth is that, in the course book, it was not specified that you can only go round the traffic circle to the left," he said. "I was lucky."
The stage was marked by several crashes, one of which involved Spain's Joaquim Rodriguez, of Katusha, who finished the stage 11 minutes behind the leader. Italian Alessandro Spezialetti, from the Lampre team, suffered a fractured collarbone and withdrew.
Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara of Leopard Trek also announced his withdrawal to return home and prepare for the World Championships in Copenhagen.
The 17th stage takes the riders 211 kilometres from Faustino V to Pena Cabarga, a hilly route that ends by the coast in the northern region of Cantabria.
Results from the 16th stage of the Spanish Vuelta a Espana, a 126.6-mile (203.6km kilometre) from Villa Romana La Olmeda to Haro:
1. Juan Jose Haedo (Argentina / Saxo Bank) 4hrs 41mins 56secs
2. Alessandro Petacchi (Italy / Lampre) same time
3. Daniele Bennati (Italy / Leopard)
4. Vicente Reynes (Spain / Omega Pharma - Lotto)
5. Leigh Howard (Australia / HTC - Highroad) +2"
6. Koen de Kort (Netherlands / Skil - Shimano)
7. Lloyd Mondory (France / AG2R)
8. Nikolas Maes (Belgium / Quick-Step)
9. Chris Sutton (Australia / Team Sky)
10. Juan Jose Cobo (Spain / Geox)
Overall standings
1. Juan Jose Cobo (Spain / Geox) 64hrs 39mins 14secs
2. Chris Froome (Britain / Team Sky) +20"
3. Bradley Wiggins (Britain / Team Sky) +51"
4. Bauke Mollema (Netherlands / Rabobank) +1:41"
5. Maxime Monfort (Belgium / Leopard) +2:42"
6. Denis Menchov (Russia / Geox) +3:06"
7. Jakob Fuglsang (Denmark / Leopard) +3:08"
8. Vincenzo Nibali (Italy / Liquigas) +3:49"
9. Jurgen Van den Broeck (Belgium / Omega Pharma-Lotto) +4:03"
10. Wout Poels (Netherlands / Vacansoleil) +4:18"
