Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing Team) established himself as the time-trial expert of La Vuelta 18 with a second stage win on Tuesday. After dominating the opening TT in Malaga, the Australian champ flew on the 32km course of stage 16, from Santillana del Mar to Torrelavega. His teammate Joseph Rosskopf and Jonathan Castroviejo (Team Sky) came the closest to his 37’57’’, with a delay of 50’’. Steven Kruijswijlk (LottoNL-Jumbo) was the fastest of the GC contenders but Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) is still in red. The British climber even gained time on Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) and most of his rivals.
Matthias Brändle (Trek-Segafredo) went first and quickly set an interesting reference with a time of 40’16’’. But the youngster Kasper Asgreen surprised everyone, including himself, covering the 32km in 39’07’’. He long held the best time, fending off the European champion Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Soudal, 39’15’’), until Jonathan Castroviejo (Team Sky) set a new best time: 38’47’’. The Spanish champion only held it for three minutes, as Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing Team) smashed the time-trial with a time of 37’57’’. He was the only rider to maintain an average speed higher than 50km/h on a lumpy course.
Among the GC contenders, Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) was off the the best start. After 10km, he had the best time, 5’’ ahead of Rohan Dennis and was gaining 17’’ on Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and 20’’ on Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), also off to a good start. Colombian light-weights Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team) and Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) were already dropping 40’’ on Kruijswijk.
The Dutchman gradually lost time on Rohan Dennis and eventually set the 4th best time, 38’48’’. Enric Mas (Quick-Step Floors) also had a solid ride (39’00’’) to move up 5th on the general classification. With the 13th time, Simon Yates eventually dropped 39’’ on Kruijswijk but finished 7’’ ahead of Alejandro Valverde to increase his GC lead to 33’’. Kruijswijk is now third (+52’’), ahead of Nairo Quintana (+1’15’’).
