Vuelta a Espana 2008 – Stage 17 Results

September 17th, 2008 by Ron Callahan 119 views No Comment

The Vuelta continues its rush to Madrid. Today’s stage from Zamora – Valladolid is relatively short at 148 km and should not present a significant challenge to the competitors. While you couldn’t call it a flat stage, there are very few bumps along the way.

The pace was a little quicker than yesterday’s laconic march. Perhaps the riders are ready for this thing to be over.

Pedro Horrillo (Rabobank) decided early that he wanted to go for it, and escaped at km 12. José Ruiz (Andalucía-Cajasur) chased and caught him a kilometer later and they began to work together. 30 km later, they had nearly an eight and a half minute lead, but it started to drop soon after.

Silence-Lotto, Euskaltel-Euskadi and Caisse d’Epargne were leading the charge in the peloton and brought the gap down to under 5 minutes with 50 km to go. It continued to drop and was down under 4 minutes by the time that Horrillo and Ruiz crossed the finish line for the first time and headed out for the closing circuit. The stage passes through the towns of Zaratan and Wamba twice.

There is a hard right turn that comes 750m before the finish and the circuit lap gives the sprinters a sneak preview of their target.

The duo of Horrillo and Ruiz had led for over 100km, but as the peloton hit the closing circuit and sprint teams started to form, their gap dropped to a hair over 2 minutes. Through the town of Wamba (again) they had 1′35, but 18 long kilometers to go.

Paolo Bettini (Quick Step) is reportedly dropping out of the race after today and will head home for a few days of rest and easy training before the World Championships in Varese, Italy. He’d like to wear the rainbow jersey for another year, but teammate Boonen seems to want it pretty badly as well.

At around 14 km, Astana woke up and really starting driving the pace. The peloton was split in two and Boonen, Erik Zabel (Milram) and David Moncoutie (Cofidis) all ended up in the second group. They had to hammer to get back at the front to be in position for the sprint. Horrillo and Ruiz had 45 seconds before Astana jumped but that quickly came down in an inevitable slide.

Zabel had a flat with about 8km to go, knocking him out of contention for the sprint. The lead duo was captured soon after. The peloton re-merged as well, so everyone was together for the final run into Valladolid.

Imanol Erviti (Caisse d’Epargne) attacks and gets a small lead before being pulled back. Filipo Pozzato (Liquigas) and Boonen’s sprint teams dominated the front of the pack. Boonen backed off just before the finish – teammate Wouter Weylandt was the sprinter today and crossed the line first with Alexandre Usov (AG2R La Mondiale) and Matti Breschel (CSC Saxo Bank) coming across second and third respectively.

Contador, Leipheimer and Sastre hold on to their positions for one more day. The next two days offer the last opportunities for the sprinters before Saturday’s uphill time trial.