Bradley Wiggins has stayed in the hunt at the Tour of Murcia after leading Team Sky home in ninth position on stage three.

The 29-year-old began the day five seconds behind overall race leader Robert Hunter, and now trails Josep Jufré by the same margin after Hunter withdrew halfway through the day after receiving the news his wife had gone into labour.

Jufré, of Astana, ended the stage in third position after Milram's Luke Roberts had sprinted home in front of Sergey Lagutin (Vacansoleil), but now holds the advantage over Roberts at the top of the standings.

Wiggins must have awoken feeling fresh as he was among a group of 10 riders who tested the waters early in the race.

That attack was quickly chased down by Team RadioShack but four riders including Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil), Michal Kwiatkowski (Caja Rural), Jan Barta (NetApp) and Marcel Barth (German Team) were allowed to break away soon after and had built up a lead of nine minutes on the peloton by the time they passed the 50km mark.

Enduro Racing's Alexandre Blain had looked lively over the first two days and made his presence felt again as he headed out on his own to try and breach that gap soon after it had developed. Blain's move proved fruitless however as RadioShack - this time with the help of Garmin-Transitions and Rabobank - hauled him back after around 30km.

With the news Hunter was out of the equation, the peloton stepped up their chase and by the time the leading quartet had made it over the category 1 climb up the Alto de Espuña, their advantage had all-but dissipated.

The bunch was brought together before the day's final ascent up the Alto de Collando Bermejo, but further attacks were soon to come thick and fast.

Vacansoleil's Wouter Poels was awarded the Marco Pantani trophy after crossing the summit in first place, but Chris Froome and Wiggins were not far behind as they made it over the top in fifth and sixth position respectively.

Poels was joined by team-mate Rob Ruijgh, Jufré and Stefan Denifl (Cervélo) on the steep descent as the quartet made their bid for glory 6km from the finish.

Those four riders held on until the final kilometre before being swept up ahead of a third consecutive bunch sprint. This time it was Roberts who proved too strong for his rivals, powering over the line ahead of Lagutin and the resolute Jufré.

Saturday's penultimate stage is the 22km individual time trial around Alhama de Murcia and Wiggins will be hoping for a strong showing to boost his chances of attaining the overall title.