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After the final rest day of the 2014 Tour of Spain the teams and riders are back to complete the final flat stage of this year’s race. Join The Roar for a live blog of Stage 17 of the Vuelta a Espana from 12:00am (AEST).
Tonight’s stage, from Ortigueira to A Coruna, is the last chance for the sprinters to win at this year’s Tour of Spain.
It is a 190 kilometre stage, with no category climbs, and two intermediate sprints as the field travels along the sea in the north of the country. It is almost the perfect stage for the field after a rest day.
Heading into the final few days, which still includes two medium mountain stages, a mountain stage, and a time trial, it is a good stage for the riders to complete, before they hit the harder ones at the end of the week.
This stage shouldn’t affect the overall standings though as Alberto Contador continues to stamp his authority on the Red Jersey in the last stage on Monday.
He won Stage 16 and extended his lead to 1 minute and 36 seconds to Alejandro Valverde in second position.
Tonight’s stage is important for Valverde, and not because of the overall standings.
Valverde is in contention for back to back green jerseys after winning the points classification last year. This year he is just ten points behind John Degenkolb and is in contention to win the jersey.
Tonight could give Valverde a great chance to win the jersey if Degenkolb struggles to win the stage, or gain any points in the intermediate sprints.
With no flat stages for the rest of the tour, and plenty of mountain stages, Valverde could recover the points gap in those stages and win the jersey.
On the other hand, a win by Degenkolb, and more points in the intermediate sprints, could help the German win the green jersey for himself.
He will be one of the riders to look out for tonight with Peter Sagan, Tom Boonen and Nacer Bouhanni also in contention for the stage win.
For Sagan, and Boonen, tonight provides a chance to win something that has eluded them all season. A stage win at one of the Grand Tours this season has not happened to Sagan or Boonen.
Despite winning the Tour De France points classification, Sagan has struggled to win a stage in the three Grand Tours.
Boonen has only competed at the Vuelta and was close in the last flat stage on Stage 12.
While these two riders are chances of winning the stage tonight, I still think it is down to Bouhanni and Degenkolb.
Both riders have won stages at the Vuelta with Degenkolb winning three and Bouhanni winning two this year.
Out of the four flat stages so far in this tour, Degenkolb and Bouhanni have won all of them.
I’m going to lean towards a Degenkolb win as he needs a big night to extend his lead in the green jersey. The 25 point win from the stage could give him the green jersey at the end of the Tour.
PREDICTION: Degenkolb.
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