2017 Vuelta a Espana: Stage 16 Results

Team Sky’s Chris Froome took a stunning stage victory in Tuesday’s 40km Individual Time Trial, extending his overall lead at the 2017 Vuelta a Espana.

Froome now leads Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali by 1 minute 58 seconds, with the race entering the final stages before ending in Madrid on Sunday.

Froome had earmarked the time trial as being crucial to his ambitions of overall victory, and he took the opportunity to take time from all of his rivals with a perfectly paced ride over a largely flat and straight course.

He is aiming to become only the third rider ever to claim an historic Tour de France / Vuelta a Espana ‘double’, and the first rider to do it after the Vuelta moved in the race calendar to become the last of the season’s Grand Tours.

Chris Froome said:

“I was riding at the speed I felt best. I wasn’t really getting that many time checks from the car, so I didn’t really know where I was. I was a bit worried coming into the last 6 or 7 kilometres but then I found out I was on track to fight for the stage.

“To extend my lead now and to be in this position with 4 big days of racing left now is obviously a great position to be in, but I am going to take it one day at a time.

“I want to say a massive thank you to the support team at Team Sky. That support structure and being able to focus on the job in hand is a huge part of what I’m able to do.

Looking ahead to the rest of the week, Froome said:

“I’ve got a good buffer but the race is not over. I have to keep fighting every day now, but this is one step closer to Madrid

“Tomorrow will be brutal. Absolutely brutal. From what I can see the final climb is a wall, so it will be a big GC battle”.

Team Sky Principal Dave Brailsford said:

“It was the day after the rest day, which adds an extra dimension to it, but the course suited Chris. You’ve still got to go well, though, and you’ve still got to not get over excited.

“You don’t want to go too hard at the start, you need to pace the effort, but he’s experienced with that now and I think today showed why he is considered to be one of the best time triallists in the world.

“The stages that are coming up are so hard and the climbs so steep and intense, that there’s no opportunity to relax. I think you just don’t know what’s going to happen in cycling.

“It could be anything; crashes, punctures, the usual things and you have to be ready for the unexpected but in the middle of that, keep the guys calm, manage our efforts and really try and control the race now until Madrid.

“I think we can tick that one off now and look at tomorrow and get back into the steep hills. It’s a difficult day tomorrow.

“It’ll be an interesting day tomorrow, as we had a rest day and then some of the guys didn’t go full in the time trial and if they did go full in the time trial, we’ll see how that will affect them.”

Stage 16 Brief Results:

1. Chris Froome (Britain / Team Sky) 47:00″
2. Wilco Kelderman (Netherlands / Team Sunweb) +29″
3. Vincenzo Nibali (Italy / Bahrain-Merida) +57″
4. Ilnur Zakarin (Russia / Katusha-Alpecin) +59″
5. Alberto Contador (Spain / Trek-Segafredo)
6. Tobias Ludvigsson (Sweden / FDJ) +1:07″
7. Wout Poels (Netherlands / Team Sky) +1:11″
8. Lennard Kaemna (Germany / Team Sunweb) +1:30″
9. Daniel Oss (Italy / BMC Racing Team) +1:49″
10. Alexis Gougeard (France / AG2R La Mondiale) +1:50″

General Classification After Stage 16:

1. Chris Froome (Britain / Team Sky) 62:53:25″
2. Vincenzo Nibali (Italy / Bahrain-Merida) +1:58″
3. Wilco Kelderman (Netherlands / Team Sunweb) +2:40″
4. Ilnur Zakarin (Russia / Katusha-Alpecin) +3:07″
5. Alberto Contador (Spain / Trek-Segafredo) +4:58″
6. Miguel Angel Lopez (Colombia / Astana Pro Team) +5:25″
7. Fabio Aru (Italy / Astana Pro Team) +6:27″
8. Wout Poels (Netherlands / Team Sky) +6:33″
9. Esteban Chaves (Colombia / Orica-Scott) +6:40″
10. Michael Woods (Canada / Cannondale-Drapac) +7:06″