Vuelta a Espana: Chris Froome and Alberto Contador suffer late crash during stage seven

Belgium's Jonas van Genechten took his first grand tour stage victory in Puebla de Sanabria

Contador and Froome collided late on during stage seven (Getty)

Belgium's Jonas van Genechten surged to his first grand tour stage victory as Chris Froome and Alberto Contador were caught up in a late crash on stage seven of the Vuelta a Espana.

Tour de France winner Froome (Team Sky) was unharmed, but Tinkoff team leader Contador fell heavily on his left shoulder after touching wheels with another rider 500 metres from the finish line in Puebla de Sanabria.

Contador eventually crossed the line with a cut to his shoulder and, although he was given the same time as the field with the crash coming inside the final three kilometres, the Spaniard admitted that the race was now "complicated" for him.

"Somebody hit me and that's why I fell down," Contador told Eurosport.

"I was taken down and the left hand side of my body feels pretty bad.

"We'll see (about the Vuelta), but it will be complicated from now on."

Contador remains three minutes and 19 seconds down on race leader Darwin Atapuma (BMC), whose advantage over Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) was cut to eight seconds.

Froome remains in third place 42 seconds down on Colombian Atapuma.

Jonas van Genechten celebrates crossing the finish line (Getty)

But the day belonged to Van Genechten, who claimed a third grand tour win in 2016 for an IAM Cycling team which will be disappearing at the end of the season.

Unaware of the mini pile-up behind him, Van Genechten held off Daniele Bennati (Tinkoff), Valverde, Philippe Gilbert (BMC) and Kevin Reza (FDJ) in the uphill sprint to the line.

"The chances for victory are really small on the Vuelta, so we have to fight every single stage for the possibility of a sprint," said Van Genechten, riding his maiden grand tour at the age of 29.

"I tried the first one, the second one I was a little bit on the limit - but this was one of my goals so I went right to the finish.

"It's the biggest win for me, that's for sure.

"To be on the podium in a grand tour was one of my dreams, and I did it."

On a sweltering day in the Spanish sunshine, Victor Campenaerts (Lotto NL Jumbo) and Luis Angel Mate (Cofidis) led out an early six-man break.

But they were caught by the peloton 43kms from the finish of the 158.5kms stage between Maceda and Puebla de Sanabria in Galicia.

There was another five-man attack with 29kms remaining and Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) and Simon Clarke (Cannondale-Drapac) tried to resist the peloton in the closing stages.

But they were hunted down in the final kilometre and Van Genechten prevailed in what had been a gruelling stage.

Team Sky's Michal Kwiatkowski was forced to withdraw at the start of the day because of a back problem.

Niccolo Bonifazio (Trek-Segafredo) and Rein Taaramae (Katusha) were further casualties.