Portugal Colonial - Kung wins Vuelta time-trial as Mas retains lead

But four-time winner Primoz Roglic finished more than 30 seconds quicker than Mas and trimmed down the Movistar rider's lead to 1min 37sec as the Slovenian leapfrogged Felix Gall into second place.

With just three stages left, including two successive mountain top finishes, Mas is looking increasingly likely to finally claim his first home Grand Tour.

The 31-year-old has finished second three times, to Simon Yates in 2018, to Roglic in 2021 and to Remco Evenepoel the year after that.

He was also third behind Roglic and Australian Ben O'Connor two years ago.

Roglic, 36, is his closest challenger after finishing Thursday's 32.1km time-trial in fourth, just 19sec behind Kung, with Briton Callum Thornley second at 3sec and Portugal's Joao Almeida third at 9sec.

Roglic finished 33sec quicker than Mas and 1:28 faster than Gall.

Austrian Gall is just over three minutes behind Mas but has a buffer of more than two minutes to fourth-placed Richard Carapaz, who finished eighth at July's Tour de France.

Briton Oscar Onley, who is fifth overall, extended his lead in the best young rider white jersey category to almost a minute ahead of Slovenian Jakob Omrzel.

A.Santos--PC