Tom Dumoulin storms back into race lead after ITT win in Burgos

Published 09/09/2015 at 18:27 GMT

Dutchman Tom Dumoulin put in a blistering performance in the 38.7km individual time trial in Burgos to win stage 17 of the Vuelta a España and move back into the red jersey in style, writes Felix Lowe.

Giant-Alpecin's Dutch cyclist Tom Dumoulin puts on the red jersey as he celebrates on the podium after winning the 17th stage

Image credit: AFP

The Giant-Alpecin time trial specialist finished more than three minutes faster than overnight race leader Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) to move into the Vuelta hot seat for the third time in the past fortnight.

Dumoulin used his pedigree as world championship bronze medallist in the discipline to set a time of 46min 01sec over a lumpy and technical course - 1:04 faster than his nearest rival, Poland’s Maciej Bodnar (Tinkoff-Saxo).

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Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) completed the top three with an impressive ride to finish 1:08 slower than the rangy Dutch trailblazer.

But Italy's Fabio Aru (Astana) rallied on the second of two climbs to limit his loses to less than two minutes.

Aru, the Giro d'Italia runner-up who ended Dumoulin’s previous reign in red after finishing behind team-mate Mikel Landa in stage 11 at Cortals d’Encamp, is now just three seconds down on Dumoulin with four stages remaining.

Rodriguez’s short stint in red came to an end when the Spanish veteran conceded 3:06 to Dumoulin to drop to third place on GC at 1:15.

Poland’s Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) struggled over the demanding course to drop to fourth on the overall standings at 2:22 while Movistar pair Nairo Quintana and Valverde rose to fifth and sixth respectively after solid rides.

"I felt good yesterday on the rest day and this morning we went for a ride on the course and I still felt good," 24-year-old Dumoulin said.

"To win by a minute over second place is amazing and to get the red jersey as well is also amazing. But it’s only three seconds on Aru so I’m a little bit worried."

While there are no more summit finishes in the 70th edition of the Vuelta, two hilly stages are followed by Saturday’s mountainous stage 20 which features four back-to-back first category climbs ahead of a downhill finish in Cercedilla.

Asked whether he could hold on to the red jersey all the way to Madrid, Dumoulin remained defiant yet realistic. "It’s definitely possible but the coming days are hard," he said.

"We have a good team. We can control and we will control. Of course we will lose control when the other teams of the GC favourites attack. But I’m confident I can hold it together.

"It will be stressful. Three seconds is the kind of time you can lose on a bunch sprint. Anything can happen but whatever happens this Vuelta has already been a great success for me."

Stage 17 result

1. Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Giant-Alpecin 0:46:01

2. Maciej Bodnar (Pol) Tinkoff-Saxo 0:01:04

3 .Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 0:01:08

4. Vasil Kiryienka (Blr) Team Sky 0:01:31

5. Jerome Coppel (Fra) IAM Cycling 0:01:32

General classification

1. Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Giant-Alpecin

2. Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team +03

3. Joaquim Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha +1:15

4. Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff-Saxo +2:22

5. Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team +2:53

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