With five non-starters, 164 riders tackled the only individual time-trial of La Vuelta 2017, from Circuito de Navarra to Logroño. Among the first riders on the course, Daniel Oss (BMC) set the first reference that would hold for some time: 48'49”. Alexis Gougeard (AG2R-La Mondiale) was faster than him after 27.9km but the Frenchman came short by 1 second on the finish line.
German talent Lennard Kämna (Sunweb) eventually claimed the fastest time in 48'30”. But Swedish National time-trial champion Tobias Ludvigsson (FDJ) did even better with 48'04”. He was the first rider to cover the course at an average speed higher than 50km/h.
Ludvigsson's reference was only bettered by the top GC contenders. Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) was faster with 47'59”. The Spanish triple winner of La Vuelta, riding his last time-trial as a professional rider, eventually lost the stage. But his performance allows him to climb four ladders on GC, while Esteban Chaves (Orica-Scott) faded with a time of 51'01”.
Wilco Kelderman (Sunweb) was the fastest at the first intermediate point and provisionally set the best time on the finish line but he eventually saw Chris Froome (Team Sky) outperform him. The British rider claimed the victory with a time of 47'00”, 29” faster than Kelderman and 57” ahead of Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida), his two main challengers on GC. They have five days of racing to overthrow Froome, beginning with the dreaded climb up Los Machucos on Wednesday.
