De Gendt takes fourth Victory for Lotto Soudal as Froome retains Red jersey
Lotto Soudal's Thomas De Gendt won the sprint from the breakaway as all the GC favorites finish in the main peloton before tomorrow's BRUTAL Angliru stage
The 153km stage to Gijón started with 19 riders have establishing a breakaway in the first 20 kms of racing; Edward Theuns, Jarlinson Pantano (Trek-Segafredo), Bob Jungels, Matteo Trentin (Quick Step), Nicolas Roche (BMC), Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe), Julien Duval (AG2R-La Mondiale), Davide Villella (Cannondale-Drapac), Floris De Tier, Juanjo Lobato (LottoNL-Jumbo), Rui Costa, Matej Mohoric (UAE Team Emirates), Laurens De Vreese (Astana), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), Ivan Garcia Cortina (Bahrain-Merida), Dani Navarro, Kenneth Vanbilsen (Cofidis), David Arroyo (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Juan Felipe Osorio (Manzana-Postobon).
The stage had 4 climbs, 1 first category and 3 third category climbs.
After 30km a group of nine riders in the breakaway have crested the Alto de la Colladona and Davide Villella (Cannondale-Drapac) took the maximum KOM points with a lead of 9 minutes over the peloton. Davide Villella (Cannondale-Drapac) was looking to secure as many KOM points as possible before tomorrow's Angliru stage.
Edward Theuns (Trek-Segafredo) has attacked the breakaway and got a gap of 30 seconds just before the second climb of the day the 3rd catgeory Alto de Santo Emiliano (6.8km, 4.5%), but Davide Villella (Cannondale-Drapac) took maximum KOM points on the 2nd climb of the Alto de Santo Emiliano. Meanwhile the peloton was over 15 minutes behind.
With 50 kms to go, the 17 riders in the breakaway had a lead of 18 minutes.
Team Astana came to the front the peloton and picked up the pace, with Nibali 8th on GC and Nicholas Roche in the breakaway and 24 minutes behind on GC, he could have spring boarded into the top 10 on GC if left unattended.
The breakaway started to attack each other with 34 kms to go. Spain's Ivan Garcia Cortina (Bahrain-Merida) opened up a 50 second gap on his breakaway companions with 24 kms to go.
The final climb, third category Alto de San Martin with 23 kms to go will came into play, Ivan Garcia Cortina reached the top, but Romain Bardet had nearly caught him.
Behind the rest of breakaway chased sensing the danger of the attacks
De Gendt and other bridged across, with 3 kms to go and Roche, Garcia, Rui Costa, De Gendt and Bardet battled it out, meanwhile Contador hasdattacked the main peloton and has a 50 second gap.
Thomas De Gendt won the breakaway sprint, behind Contador was caught with 1.5 kms to go. Froome shook his hand in respect.
All the GC favorites finished together, before tomorrow's Angliru stage!
Don't miss tomorrow's Stage 20, a short sharp shocker! It features one of the hardest climbs used in professional road cycling, the gut wrenching Alto de L’Angliru. There are three steps to the Angliru. The first 5 kilometres goes up at 8% and following a relatively flat kilometre the rest of the rest of the is brutal. The second half of the climb is a cursed average gradient of 15%.
But riders will face the steepest part at 23.5%, aptly named Cueña les Cabres (goat path), with 3 kilometres remaining. We expect the biggest fireworks yet on this year's Vuelta a Espana.
2017 Vuelta a Espana Stage 19 Top Ten
1 Thomas De Gendt (Bel) Lotto Soudal 3:35:46
2 Jarlinson Pantano (Col) Trek-Segafredo
3 Ivan Garcia Cortina (Spa) Bahrain-Merida
4 Rui Alberto Faria da Costa (Por) UAE Team Emirates
5 Floris De Tier (Bel) Team LottoNL-Jumbo
6 Bob Jungels (Lux) Quick-Step Floors
7 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale
8 Nicolas Roche (Irl) BMC Racing Team
9 Daniel Navarro Garcia (Spa) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
10 Koen Bouwman (Ned) Team LottoNL-Jumbo 0:00:45
2017 Vuelta a Espana GC after Stage
1 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 75:51:51
2 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:01:37
3 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:02:17
4 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Katusha-Alpecin 0:02:29
5 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Trek-Segafredo 0:03:34
6 Miguel Angel Lopez (Col) Astana Pro Team 0:05:16
7 Michael Woods (Can) Cannondale-Drapac 0:06:33
8 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team
9 Wout Poels (Ned) Team Sky 0:06:47
10 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team LottoNL-Jumbo 0:10:26