Vuelta a Espana: Ruben Fernandez leads while Alexandre Geniez takes stage

Sky had held the red jersey after each of the opening two stages, first through Kennaugh and then Kwiatkowski

Alexandre Geniez won stage three of the Vuelta a Espana (Getty)

Alexandre Geniez won stage three of the Vuelta a Espana as Team Sky handed over the race leader's red jersey to Spaniard Ruben Fernandez of Movistar.

Frenchman Geniez, racing for FDJ, took victory atop the brutal Mirador de Ezaro as the sole survivor of the day's breakaway while the general classification battle began in earnest behind.

Sky had held the red jersey after each of the opening two stages, first through Peter Kennaugh and then Michal Kwiatkowski, but Fernandez's second place, 21 seconds behind Geniez, was enough for him to take red in his debut Vuelta.

Tour de France winner Chris Froome looked to have been dropped on the final climb - just 1.8km long but at brutal gradients, averaging 13.8 per cent and maxing out at almost 30 per cent - but the Sky man gradually worked his way back, finishing fourth alongside Movistar's Valverde and Orica-BikeExchange's Esteban Chaves, five seconds behind Fernandez.

That means Fernandez now leads overall by seven seconds from Valverde, with Froome third, 11 seconds down.

Chaves is fourth, 17 seconds down alongside Movistar's Nairo Quintana in fifth. Kennaugh, leader after the opening stage, is seventh, 47 seconds off the pace.

This challenging 176.4km stage from Marin to Dumbria put several early challenges in the riders' path, and took its toll as Giant-Alpecin's Warren Barguil abandoned while Astana's Miguel Angel Lopez lost several minutes in a crash.

There were also big losers on the final climb as Tinkoff's Alberto Contador finished 54 seconds down and Lotto-NL Jumbo's Steven Kruiswijk rolled home more than two minutes after Geniez.