Richard Carapaz claimed his second stage victory in three days at the Vuelta a España ©Getty Images

Ecuador's Richard Carapaz perfected a breakaway to win the 14th stage of the 2022 Vuelta a España in the mountains at Sierra de La Pandera, while defending champion Primož Roglič of Jumbo-Visma kept the general classification drama alive with a late attack.

Ineos Grenadiers' Carapaz prevailed after 160.3 kilometres after making a move early in the race to pick up King of the Mountain points.

Carapaz was part of a group to pull more than four minutes in front of the peloton at one stage.

With 29km to the finish and a lot of climbing still to come, Carapaz and those in the leading pack with him were still four minutes in front of the general classification riders, who started to accelerate.

Kazakhstan's Alexey Lutsenko of Astana Qazaqstan and Spain's Luis León Sánchez of Bahrain Victorious moved on at the front with only Carapaz, Italian Filippo Conca of Lotto-Soudal and French cyclist Clément Champoussin of AG2R Citroën bridging the gap to them, only for the other attackers to come back together at 15km.

A second attack saw Sánchez take the front again, with the other four going after him along with France's Kenny Elissonde of Trek-Segafredo.

Going onto the Sierra de La Pandera ascent with 8km to go, only Sánchez, Carapaz and Champoussin remained at the front.

The peloton got the lead down to less than 90 seconds 5km out from the end and minutes later, Roglič emerged out of the peloton, looking fresher in the legs than Belgian Remco Evenepoel of Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl.

The overall leader Evenepoel was left for dead as his Slovenian rival created a gap and took the rider third in the general classification, Spain's Enric Mas of Movistar, with him.

While the drama unfolded behind, Carapaz got to the line with an eight-second gap back to Roglič and Colombian Miguel Ángel López of Astana.

Carapaz crossed the steep finish in a time of 4 hours 9min 27sec.

It was the Ecuadorian's second stage victory in three days.

Portugal's João Almeida of UAE Team Emirates was fourth, 27sec behind Carapaz, with Mas and Carlos Rodriguez of Ineos Grenadiers coming in 36sec behind.

Evenepoel and Spain's Juan Ayuso of UAE Team Emirates came in 56sec behind the winner, with the overall lead being cut by 52sec by Roglič, who is now 1min 49sec behind.

Mas is then third, 2:43 adrift, in front of compatriots Rodriguez and Ayuso.