Vuelta a España: Gilbert wins stage 17

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220-kilometre routes with no categorised climbs do not, on paper, lend themselves to high drama, but the Vuelta a España was blown apart by crosswinds on stage 17. When the dust had settled on a sensational day of racing run off at more than 50kph, Philippe Gilbert (Deceuninck-QuickStep) had claimed his second stage victory of the race and Nairo Quintana (Movistar) had come roaring back into overall contention.

Gilbert and Quintana were part of a near-50-rider group that formed as a strong cross-tailwind inflicted immediate damage in the early kilometres. The group reduced in number as it made its way southeast, and then southwest for more of a tailwind in the final 80km, but it went all the way, finishing five-and-a-half minutes ahead of race leader Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma).

Having started the day sixth overall at 7:43 after a damaging second week, Quintana moved up to second place, leapfrogging his teammate, Alejandro Valverde. Other GC riders to benefit from making the move were Wilco Kelderman (Sunweb), who climbed from eighth to sixth, and James Knox (Deceuninck-QuickStep), who climbed from 11th to eighth.

Roglic found himself without teammates in a group of just 20 riders after Movistar blew the peloton to pieces on an uncategorised climb with 50km to go. The acceleration reduced the gains being made by Quintana up the road in the short term but shook out the support riders for Roglic and third-placed Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates). Astana, however, retained numbers and did most of the leg-work in the final hour in a failed bid to protect Miguel Angel Lopez's position of fourth in the overall standings.

There were jubilant scenes in the Deceuninck-QuickStep camp at the finish in Guadalajara. The Belgian team are experts in the crosswinds and they duly delivered on expectations by placing no fewer than seven of their eight riders in the breakaway. While Knox moved into the top 10 on GC, Gilbert made it a perfect day with a second win of the race after his triumph in Bilbao on stage 12. Remi Cavagna even took the final podium spot on the stage, behind Bennett, with Tim Declercq and Knox making it four in the top 10 for Patrick Lefevere's men.

The team's sprinter, Fabio Jakobsen, was dropped on that uncategorised climb, and so Gilbert was left with the unenviable task of taking on Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe), the top sprinter in the race who was also on board. In the end, they used Zdenek Stybar to soften Bennett up. The Czech rider attacked in the final 2km and Bennett was lured into going early with 600m to go. Gilbert set off in pursuit, catching the fading Irishman with 200m to go before leaving him behind and celebrating wildly.

"It was a very special one. I think it's the kind of stage that will stay in history, because of the way we rode. It was crazy from the gun," Gilbert said.

"It was really fast. In 17 years I don't think I've ever done anything like that. It was really crazy."

Roglic on the back foot

Primoz Roglic wore a smile as he took to the podium in Guadalajara to pull on the leader's red jersey once again. Despite the chaos, he lost no time to his direct rivals – Valverde, Pogacar, and Lopez – and his lead in real terms was only reduced by 24 seconds. What's more, the rider now closest at hand – Quintana at 2:24 – is someone he comfortably outperformed in the second week. As such, with two mountain stages remaining, Roglic declared: "It's still looking really good."

However, he nevertheless conceded the stage had veered far from the ideal script. "Let's just say I made a mistake from the beginning. I shouldn't be in the position I was – I should have been totally in front. Maybe we lost the battle today, but not the war."

Fortunately for Roglic, none of his closest rivals were up the road, and so Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates and Lopez's Astana helped contribute to the pace-setting in the bunch throughout the day. 

It was a match of those three teams against QuickStep, Movistar, and Sunweb, who were the teams up the road who were best represented and had the most to gain, though the group as a whole collaborated harmoniously for much of the day.

After going clear in the opening kilometres, they quickly built a lead of 2:30, and it grew more steadily over the following two hours as everyone got their heads down and rode close to their limits.

The full composition of the break was: Philippe Gilbert, James Knox, Rémi Cavagna, Tim Declercq, Zdenek Stybar, Fabio Jakobsen, Eros Capecchi (Deceuninck-Quick Step), José Joaquín Rojas, Imanol Erviti, Nairo Quintana, Nelson Oliveira (Movistar Team), Wout Poels, Tao Geoghegan Hart, Ian Stannard, Owain Doull (Team Ineos), Wilco Kelderman, Nikias Arndt, Casper Pedersen, Rob Power, Max Walscheid (Sunweb), Pierre Latour, Silvan Dillier, Quentin Jauregui, Clément Venturini (AG2R La Mondiale), Luis León Sánchez, Gorka Izaguirre (Astana), Heinrich Haussler, Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-Merida), Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe), Jonas Koch, Nathan Van Hooydonck (CCC Team), Lawson Craddock, Daniel Martínez (EF Education First), Thomas De Gendt, Tosh van der Sande (Lotto Soudal), Sam Bewley, Damien Howson, Dion Smith (Mitchelton-Scott), Edvald Boasson Hagen, Ben King, Rasmus Tiller, (Dimension Data), Neilson Powless (Jumbo-Visma), John Degenkolb (Trek Segafredo), Marco Marcato, Juan Sebastian Molano, Oliviero Troia (UAE Team Emirates), Jetse Bol (Burgos-BH), Gonzalo Serrano (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Aritz Bagües (Euskadi-Murias).

With 133km remaining, another selection was made up front as the wind continued to blow, and AG2R lost all their riders bar Dillier, along with Haussler, Chaves, Howson, Van Hooydonck, Martinez, King, Degenkolb, Tiller, Bol, Serrano, and Bagues.

At the half-way mark, the lead group – now containing 30-odd riders – had established a lead of five minutes, as Astana and UAE dropped their representatives back to help with the pace-making in the peloton, where Jumbo-Visma's Tony Martin and others needed assistance.

The gap reached its peak of 6:15 with just over 85km to go when the route turned south-west towards Madrid and the wind direction changed to more of a tailwind. At that point, the cooperation in the lead group appeared to wane, with QuickStep trying to shake some life back into it by briefly sending two riders up the road with Oliveira. In the space of 10km, they gave away almost a minute of their advantage but steadied the ship at around 5:25 with 65km to go.

Both groups explode with 50km to go

With around 50km to go came the uncategorised climb, which saw action at both ends of the race. Up front, Jakobsen and Capecchi were among those dropped, limiting QuickStep's options, while Movistar put the hammer down in the peloton.

It was a huge injection of pace from the Spanish team, who were effectively riding against their own co-leader, Quintana. Their aim, however, was to isolate Roglic, who was already losing teammates, and they succeeded in that. Such was the ferocity of the move, Valverde was away in a six-man group with Roglic, Pogacar, Lopez and teammate Marc Soler for a brief while. They were brought back but by the time the bunch had reformed, it was no longer a peloton at all, containing no more than 20 riders. At that point, with just over 40km to go, the gap was down to 4:30.

From there, however, it started to grow again as the race entered a more settled pattern for the final hour. While Roglic and Pogacar had been isolated, Lopez still had support, with Sanchez in turn dropping back from the break, and it was Astana versus the lead group for much of the run-in. Despite a brief lapse with around 25km to go, when QuickStep again injected some urgency by briefly splitting the group, the leaders got their heads down and their advantage rose all the way to the line.

Going into the final few kilometres, they had 5:15 in hand and attentions turned to stage honours. Despite Jakobsen's absence, QuickStep used their numbers to good effect, sending Stybar on a solo mission with 2.2km to go. Team Ineos rode hard to shut it down but didn't quite finish the job, and so with 600m to go, Bennett was tempted into striking out early. A 220km stage ridden at such intensity is a great leveller, and the slight uphill in the final three kilometres only took more of the edge off the Irishman's speed. And so Gilbert was able to work his way across with just under 200m to go. After a brief moment in the slipstream, he hit out, and Bennett had nothing left to give. He hung on for second place, just ahead of Cavagna.

Kelderman placed fifth, with a two-second gap to Gilbert, while Knox was 10th at six seconds and Quintana 10th at 10 seconds.

Meanwhile the Roglic group, in damage limitation mode, hurried home and stopped the clock almost 5:30 down on Gilbert. Lopez sprinted for home and finished alongside Roglic, Valverde, Pogacar and Majka, while a second group of eight riders, finishing a few seconds further back, was all that was left of the peloton.

Roglic remains in red, his lead more or less intact, but it was a bruising day that suggested the final week of this Vuelta might not be the foregone conclusion that had been feared. Two mountain stages remain, starting with Thursday's treacherous journey through the sierras north of Madrid. Game on.

Stage Results

Overall Standings