194 riders tackled the first mountain stage of La Vuelta 2017, with Benjamin King (Dimension Data) withdrawing due to illness. Four of them attacked as soon as the flag was dropped: Davide Villella (Cannondale-Drapac), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal), Anthony Turgis (Cofidis) and Fabricio Ferrari (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA). They were joined by AG2R-La Mondiale's Axel Domont and Alexandre Geniez, as well as Fernando Orjuela (Manzana Postobon) ahead of the first climb of the day, the Col de la Perche, where Przemyslaw Nimiec (UAE Team Emirates) also got back to the front of the race to build the 8-man break that would lead the way for most of the stage.
De Gendt enjoyed the first cat-1 summit of La Vuelta 2017 to assert his ambitions in the KOM classification. In the peloton, Yves Lampaert's (Quick-Step Floors) teammates set the pace to defend the red jersey. The gap barely got over 5 minutes with 80km to go. The riders had then left french roads behind them and were racing in Spain, heading to Andorra for the key challenges of the day.
In the final 50km, the Col de la Rabassa offered the perfect ground for new moves. After a brief attack from Domont, Geniez set a hard pace only Villella could match. Team Sky took the lead of the peloton and set a pace too hard for Lampaert to keep up. Chris Froome's teammates also covered a move from Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates) and eventually reeled in the early attackers 27km from the finish.
A new push from Team Sky dropped Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) in the first slopes of the alto de la Comella. Froome then took things into his own hands with a strong attack 1km away from the summit. Only Esteban Chaves (Orica-Scott) was able to follow him. After a fast descent, Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) only got back in the final km to take the stage victory ahead of David De La Cruz (Quick-Step Floors) and Froome.
