Vuelta a España: Stage 17

There is a lot of talent and skill needed to win a grand tour, not least of which is the ability to time trial. Today was the Vuelta's one individual time trial and it had a big effect on the overall. The big winner of the day was Peter Velits. He took the stage win and moved himself all the way up to third in the overall. The big loser of the day was Joaquin Rodriguez. He fell all the way from first to fifth overall. This means that Vincenzo Nibali moved back into the lead, but he had some bad luck on the day. He flatted around the mid point of the race and lost about 30 seconds. That could be a big deal when they hit the final climb on Saturday.

In fact this race is now in many ways on hold until the big final mountain stage on Saturday. The next two stages will likely end in sprints, and all the overall guys will be holding back for the big mountain day on Saturday. I have to say this has been one of the best grand tours I've followed.

General classification after stage 17

#	Rider Name (Country) Team	Result
1	Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo	71:19:49
2	Ezequiel Mosquera (Spa) Xacobeo Galicia	0:00:39
3	Peter Velits (Svk) Team HTC-Columbia	0:02:00
4	Frank Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank	0:03:44
5	Joaquin Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha	0:03:45
6	Xavier Tondo (Spa) Cervélo Test Team
7	Tom Danielson (USA) Garmin-Transitions	0:03:55
8	Nicolas Roche (Irl) Ag2R-La Mondiale	0:04:03
9	Carlos Sastre (Spa) Cervélo Test Team	0:04:13
10	Luis-Leon Sanchez (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne	0:05:43