174 riders took the start from Coin for one of the longest stages of La Vuelta 2017 : 195.1km on the way to Tomares under the Andalusian Sun (up to 38°C). After 6km, four attackers were leading the way : Alexis Gougeard (AG2R-La Mondiale), Davide Villella (Cannondale-Drapac), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) and Arnaud Courteille (FDJ). Alessandro De Marchi (BMC) quickly joined them while Matteo Trentin's Quick-Step Floors were immediately taking control of the peloton.
27km into the stage, the gap went up to 5 minutes atop the only climb of the day, where Davide Villella took the points to consolidate his Polka-dot jersey. The Italian rider then waited for the bunch and left his four companions fight at the front. LottoNL-Jumbo and Cannondale-Drapac also committed to controlling the race and the gap settled around 3'40” for most of the day.
The chase got more intense with 90km to go. The gap was down to 1'40” as the race entered the last 70km and then stabilised until the peloton made it to the outskirts of Sevilla. Alessandro De Marchi (BMC) was the last early attacker to be caught, with 7km to go. Bob Jungels (Quick-Step Floors) set a very hard pace to make sure no one could get away as the bunch faced a steep section with 3km to go. Trentin then displayed his pure power to cap off the day.
