Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin), a surprise contender at this year's Vuelta, now has just one more competitive stage to negotiate before Sunday’s ceremonial finish into Madrid, a mountainous 176-km slog between San Lorenzo de El Escorial and Cercedilla on Saturday.
The 24-year-old from Maastricht, who claimed the leader’s red jersey with a scorching time trial on Wednesday, is close to a debut grand tour triumph but is sure to come under sustained pressure from Aru and his Astana team.
"I attacked to try to win a few more seconds," Dumoulin, who along with Aru was involved in a minor crash earlier in the stage, told reporters.
"I am feeling very good," he added. "I was under stress because everyone wanted to attack me but I dealt with it well.
"Tomorrow will be an exciting day when a lot of things could happen. My strategy will be to follow Aru and I will have to see with the team directors if there is any more we can do.
"But my team is better than many people think and I hope they can show that."
Gougeard (AG2R) broke away to finish Friday's 186-km ride into the walled city of Avila 40 seconds ahead of Nelson Oliveira of Portugal (Lampre) in second, with Belgium's Maxime Monfort (Lotto) a further four seconds behind in third.
In the general classification, Joaquim Rodriguez of Spain (Katusha) is nearly one and a half minutes behind Dumoulin in third and Poland’s Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) more than two and a half minutes adrift in fourth.
(Reporting by Iain Rogers, editing by Alan Baldwin)
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