2017 Vuelta a España Stage 17 Results & Recap
Stage 17 of the 2017 Vuelta a España is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Denifl wins Stage 17 of the Vuelta a Espana
Aqua Blue Sport’s Stefan Denifl (Aqua Blue Sport) soloed to victory atop the Los Machucos climb today after another hard stage of racing from Villadiego. Alberto Contador (Trek – Segafredo) finished second, 28 seconds back.
Miguel Ángel López (Astana Pro Team) put in a late acceleration to finish third, a minute and four seconds back.
Chris Froome (Sky) finished in 14th place, a disappointment for the red jersey, who conceded a bit of time to Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain - Merida). Nibali is now a minute and 16 seconds away from taking the jersey off of the Sky rider.
“I had super, super legs today,” Denifl said to reporters after the stage. “I waited all La Vuelta for that day. I paced myself until today and I went all in. It's just amazing for the team, for Aqua Blue. It's our first Grand Tour and we win a stage… I'm over the Moon! You always have to believe you'll win. When I felt my legs, I was like ‘oh my goods, this is super good'. And I just kept on pushing. The climb was perfect for me. There were bits of flat to recover. Now I've won a stage at La Vuelta… It's amazing. It's the best day of my cycling life.”
The break was created just 13 kilometres into the stage. Alessandro De Marchi (BMC), Magnus Cort Nielsen (Orica-Scott), Dani Moreno (Movistar) and Stefan Denifl (Aqua Blue Sport) were the first to snap the elastic of the peloton. They were soon joined by Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) and Davide Villella (Cannondale-Drapac) and together the six of them quickly gained an advantage of almost 10 minutes.
The gap soon was brought back under control by Astana, eager to see if Lopez could get his third stage win.
The climbs filtered out the riders in the break, and soon it was just Denifl up the road with Contador in pursuit. Froome struggled to react as Nibali also saw his advantage and leapt away.
“I think we always knew today was going to be a tough final and it certainly was,” Froome said at the end of the race. “Especially, the weather conditions. But the team is doing a great job, I am feeling good and we look forward to the next three days. It was a typical Vuelta summit finish, it's just the nature of the race. It's the same for everyone. I don't think anyone really enjoys gradients over 25%, but that's how it is. Of course it’s never nice to lose time, but I still felt good. There's just three days left and I hope we can get the job done.”\n
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