Vuelta a Espana Stage 17 - Preview

This is that rarest thing for a Vuelta stage, a day without a categorised climb, although it does rise to almost 1,400 metres at one point and features 2,400 of vertical gain as it carries the race southwards towards its finale in the mountains in central Spain.

At 219.6 kilometres, this is also the longest stage of the Vuelta. Coming the day after the second rest day in Burgos, it should allow the GC contenders to sit in and let the sprinters' teams take control of the peloton with the aim of keeping the breakaway within range and setting up a bunch finale in Guadalajara.

Peter Cossins has written about professional cycling since 1993 and is a contributing editor to Procycling. He is the author of The Monuments: The Grit and the Glory of Cycling's Greatest One-Day Races (Bloomsbury, March 2014) and has translated Christophe Bassons' autobiography, A Clean Break (Bloomsbury, July 2014). 

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