Stefan Denifl wins atop Los Machucos Monster as Froome Cracks
Aqua Blue Sport win their first stage on their first Grand Tour. Nibali blows race wide open as he takes 46 seconds back from Froome, who cracked on the Monster climb
Aqua Blue Sport's Stefan Denifl has won the 17th stage of the Vuelta a España. The Austrian was the strongest on the last climb of the day, crossing the finish line on his own.
Stage was a long 180 km affair between Villadiego and Los Machucos. The route of the day featured one climb of the second category, one of the first and a final haute-category Monster climb with gradients up to 31%.
A breakaway of six men was established including Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors), Davide Villella (Cannondale-Drapac), Alessandro De Marchi (BMC), Magnus Cort Nielsen (Orica-Scott), Dani Moreno (Movistar) and Stefan Denifl (Aqua Blue Sport), who built up a maximum lead of more than eight minutes over the peloton.
Astana took over the reigns from Team Sky and lead the chase and narrowed the lead to a stable 5 minutes.
During the penultimate climb of the Puerto de Alisas, Adam Yates and Esteban Chaves (Orica-Scott) attacked a got a small gap and were joined by David de la Cruz (Quick-Step Floors), Antonio Predrero (Movistar), Jarlinson Pantano (Trek-Segafredo), Antonio Nibali (Bahrain-Merida), Magnus Cort Nielsen (Orica-Scott) and Pello Bilbao (Astana).
It was short lived, as Team Sky took over the pace setting on reeled them back in.
Meanwhile, Cort Nielsen was dropped from the breakaway but joined his teammate Jack Haig who attacked out of the peloton.
The breakaway imploeded on the final climb of the day. Behind them, Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) attacked from the peloton and Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) followed.
With five kilometres to go, Denifl overhauled Moreno and soloed on. meanwhile Contador dropped Lopez and lifted the pace taking more time out of the other GC rivals.
Chris Froome (Team Sky) was struugling and had to be paced by team mate Mikel Nieve.
His rivals attacked. Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo), Wilco Kelderman (Sunweb), Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) and Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) pulled away opening up a huge margin on the Red jersey leader who continued to struggle on the steepest slopes.
Contador closed in on Denifl, but he held on and crossed the line 28 seconds ahead.
Behind Lopez, Nibali and Zakarin finished at 1m 04 secs behind Denifl, with Kelderman just behind.
Froome arrived to the finish at 1 minute and 46 seconds down on Denifl in 14th lace and lost 46 seconds to Nibali in the process.
Froome continues to lead the General Classification.but with a reduced lead on 1m 16 seconds.
With three more stages to go, including the Angliru stage on Saturday, the GC race isn't over as Froome's rivals will no doubt continue to attack him.
2017 Vuelta a Espana Stage 17 Top 14
1 Stefan Denifl (Aut) Aqua Blue Sport 4:48:52
2 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:28
3 Miguel Angel Lopez (Col) Astana Pro Team 0:01:04
4 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
5 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin
6 Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe
7 Michael Woods (Can) Cannondale-Drapac 0:01:13
8 Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Movistar Team 0:01:17
9 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:01:19
10 David de la Cruz (Spa) Quick-Step Floors 0:01:42
11 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team LottoNL-Jumbo
12 Jack Haig (Aus) Orica-Scott
13 Mikel Nieve Ituralde (Spa) Team Sky 0:01:46
14 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky
2017 Vuelta a Espana GC after Stage 17
1 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 67:44:03
2 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:01:16
3 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:02:13
4 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin 0:02:25
5 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Trek-Segafredo 0:03:34
6 Miguel Angel Lopez (Col) Astana Pro Team 0:04:39
7 Michael Woods (Can) Cannondale-Drapac 0:06:33
8 Wout Poels (Ned) Team Sky 0:06:40
9 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:06:45
10 David de la Cruz (Spa) Quick-Step Floors 0:10:10