2019 Vuelta a España Stage 17 Results & Recap
Stage 17 of the 2019 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
Gilbert wins again on stage 17
Philippe Gilbert (Deceuninck-Quick Step) win his second stage at the Vuelta a Espana today after a testing and windy 219.6km run into Guadalajara. The Belgian veteran was part of a large breakaway group that detached from the GC group about five kilometres into the long stage.
“It’s a very special one,” Gilbert said after the stage. “I think it’s a stage that will stay in the history books because of the way we rode. It was crazy from the gun. We went with a big group of 40 guys. There were some guys for GC like Quintana and James Knox for ourselves. We were 7 of the 8 Deceuninck guys and we rode crazy as a team, we gave morale to each other and it was incredible to see. As the kilometres passed, we lost some guys with the crosswinds, the climbs… It was really fast. At some point, we were doing 75km/h on the flat. I had a 54x11 and I was spinning all the time. In 17 years as a pro, I don’t think I’ve ever done that. It was really crazy. The crosswinds and echelons are part of the team’s DNA and I also love it. It’s not the first time I win two stages in a Grand Tour but I’ve never done it three times. Friday’s stage suits me and I’ll try to fight for victory in Toledo.”
Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) remains in the red jersey after approaching the finish line with his main GC rivals 5’29” back on the breakaway group.
“It was a hard day,” Roglic said after the stage. “I made a mistake. I shouldn’t have where I was, I should have been in the front. The team saved me with a big effort. They just went full gas from the very beginning and that was it for the rest of the day. We can see our team did a really big effort from the beginning. In the end, we couldn’t anymore so other teams had to work also. We’re still in a really good position. It was a hard day for everyone. We lost a battle today, but not the war. I never felt like La Vuelta was lost. Other guys wanted to finish as fast as possible so it was full gas until the finish line. We’ll see in Madrid but things are still looking really good for us. La Vuelta is really unpredictable and we can expect still a big fight for the days to come.”
What looked like a solid day for the sprinters on paper, turned out to be anything but because of high winds and deceptive terrain. At the start, the pace was high and a group of almost 50 riders peeled off the front of the peloton. The group contained some threats to the GC, the biggest being Nairo Quintana who was sixth on GC and 7’43” down on Roglic. Sam Bennett was also part of the break, eager to nab a second stage win.
With the average speed hovering at 50kph, the race was all business for the next four and a half hours. UAE Team Emirates and Astana joined forces to set the pace in the peloton, but allowed the gap to grow to almost six minutes with 80km to go.
Fabio Jakobsen (Deceuninck-Quick Step) cracked on an uphill drag with 50km to go, allowing Bennett to breathe a sigh of relief as Jakobsen would have been one of his main rivals in the sprint.
The pace remained high in the latter stages of the race, with the breakaway only starting to attack each other in the final three kilometres, Zdenek Stybar (Deceuninck-Quick Step) launched a strong move that looked promising, but a keen Bennett went early, passing Stybar in the last kilometre. Bennett began to fade and Gilbert jumped out of his slipstream to win his second stage at the Vuelta a Espana.
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