Vuelta a Espana 2016: Stage 17 Results, Updated Standings and Highlights
IAM Cycling's Mathias Frank took Stage 17 of the 2016 Vuelta a Espana with a wonderful solo effort on the final climb on Wednesday, while Team Sky's Chris Froome failed to gain any time on overall leader Nairo Quintana of Movistar.
Frank was part of the early break and built a 35-second lead with Astana's Dario Cataldo prior to the final ascent before dropping the Italian during the climb and clinging on to his slim lead.
Quintana, Froome, Tinkoff's Alberto Contador and Orica Bike-Exchange's Esteban Chaves all finished together, meaning Quintana remains the leader heading into the final days of the Vuelta.
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Here's a look at Wednesday's results, per Sky Sports:
And here are the overall standings:
Recap
Fresh off a rest day, the peloton faced yet another rough stage on Wednesday, with the final climb of the Alto Mas de la Costa set to have a big impact on the general classification.
While not as steep as the legendary Angliru, the climb to Mas de la Costa was steep and technical, featuring a ton of tricky bends and little space to work with. The Vuelta's official Twitter account shared this short video of one of the sections:
Per Alaisdair Fotheringham of Cycling News (via collegue Patrick Fletcher), Contador knew the riders were in for a tough day: "I know the climb personally, and I went up it very recently. The gaps will be far bigger. It's going to be extremely hot and there's more than 3,700 meters of vertical climbing. It'll be one of the hardest days of the entire Vuelta."
A breakaway always seemed likely, with the favourites focused on each other rather than the stage win, but a number of early attacks didn't have the desired effect. It took almost an hour of racing before a large group of 27 riders found a gap, and with no general classification threats in the group, the peloton were happy to let them ride.
Among the 27 were several big-name riders and candidates to take the stage, including Leopold Konig (Team Sky), Robert Gesink (LottoNL-Jumbo), Simon Gerrans (Orica-BikeExchange), Haimar Zubeldia (Trek-Segafredo) and Cataldo.
With the 27 quickly building their lead, fans and pundits turned their attention to the peloton and the final climb. As shared by NYVelocity, it's been quite a spectacular race for fans of climbing and late drama:
BMC's Tejay van Garderen abandoned, as the American rider was in no position to win anything in this year's Vuelta, but the rest of the peloton enjoyed the slow pace in anticipation of the major finale.
The unity in the break fell to pieces with 30 kilometers to ride, as several riders attacked. Cataldo found a gap, but Gesink's troops kept a close eye, as the Dutchman was the clear favourite to take the stage. Cataldo had the company of Frank, and the two worked together well.
The two built a lead of 25 seconds on the way to the final climb, which seemed too little to last. As cycling writer Mihai Cazacu shared, Gesink actually held the Strava record for the final climb, although he believed it wouldn't last:
The gap was 35 seconds with 10 kilometers left to ride, with the peloton almost six minutes further back. Orica-BikeExchange took control of the bunch, setting up Chaves.
Franck shockingly dropped Cataldo with just under three kilometers left, with the steepest sections still to come. Gesink made the jump to the Italian, bringing Konig and Movistar's Jose Herrada Lopez with him, and he made a desperate solo push inside the final kilometer.
In the peloton, Chaves launched his attack, as expected, and Contador quickly reacted. The Spaniard struggled to maintain the gap, and Quintana distanced Froome. The Tour de France winner returned, pitting the top four riders overall against each other.
Frank crossed the finish line first, but all eyes were further down, watching the leaders. All four finished together—the perfect scenario for Quintana ahead of the time trial on Friday.
Orica-BikeExchange's Simon Yates and Samuel Sanchez of BMC lost a lot of time, sliding down the GC in the process.
As Fletcher reported Frank was ecstatic with the win: "I’ve had a rough season, not much was working as I wanted—I had to abandon the Tour de Suisse and the Tour de France. So I came here and I told myself I want to have fun, get a good feeling back. To finally have a victory after more than two years, winning a Grand Tour stage, it’s just amazing."
Thursday's stage will likely result in a bunch sprint, although the climb of the Alto del Pelegrin midway through the stage could ruin the plans of the sprint teams. The favourites will have their eyes on Friday, however, and the highly anticipated individual time trial.
A nearly flat test of almost 40 kilometers, it will provide specialists like Froome the chance to claw their way back into contention ahead of the final mountain stage on Saturday.
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