Green jersey holder Wout van Aert had to abandon the Vuelta a Espana after crashing on stage 16 as Spanish rider Marc Soler won a tricky mountainous stage.

UAE Team Emirates’ Soler finished 18 seconds ahead of Italian Filippo Zana to claim his stage win.

Meanwhile, general classification leader Ben O’Connor managed to narrowly cling on to his advantage over Primoz Roglic but is now just 5 seconds ahead in the standings.

British rider Max Poole finished third in the stage, narrowly behind Zana in the duo closest to stage winner Soler.

Van Aert – who had won three stages on this year’s tour – had to abandon after a crash with around 48km remaining.

He got back on his bike after crashing into the hillside on a descent, but soon pulled up again and clutched his knee as he was tended to in the boot of his team’s car.

The Belgian, who won bronze in the Paris 2024 Olympic time trial, was leading the mountain and points classifications.

Wednesday’s 141.5km stage 17 is another ride across medium mountains, from Arneuro to Santander.

1. Marc Soler (Spa/UAE Team Emirates) 4hrs 44mins 46secs

2. Filippo Zana (Ita/Jayco-Allua) +18secs

3. Max Poole (GB/Team dsm-firmenich-PostNL) +23secs

4. Jay Vine (Aus/UAE Team Emirates) +57secs

5. Ion Izagirre (Spa/Cofidis) +1min 2secs

6. Isaac del Toro (Mex/UAE Team Emirates) +1min 29secs

7. Marco Frigo (Ita/Israel-Premier Tech) +1min 35secs

8. Mattew Riccitello (USA/Israel-Premier Tech) +1min 47secs

9. Enrique Mas (Spa/Movistar) +3mins 54secs

10. Richard Carapaz (Ecu/EF Education-EasyPost) +3mins 54secs

1. Ben O’Connor (Aus/Decathlon-AG2R-La Mondiale) 65hrs 9mins

2. Primoz Roglic (Slo/Red Bull – Bora-Hansgrohe) +5secs

3. Enrique Mas (Spa/Movistar) +1min 25secs

4. Richard Carapaz (Ecu/EF Education-EasyPost) +1min 46secs

5. Mikel Landa (Spa/Soudal – Quick-Step) +2mins 18secs)

6. David Gaudu (Fra/Groupama – FDJ) +3mins 48secs

7. Carlos Rodriguez (Spa/Ineos Grenadiers) +3mins 53secs

8. Mattias Skjelmose (Den/Lidl trek) +4mins

9. Florian Lipowitz (Ger/Red Bull – Bora-Hansgrohe) +4mins 27secs

10. Pavel Sivakov (Fra/UAE Team Emirates) +5mins 19secs