DISCUSSION Vuelta a España Stage 17 | Were Jonas Vingegaard and Joao Almeida saving energy for tomorrow's time trial?

The seventeenth stage of the Vuelta a España featured another “unipuerto”, with a summit finish to the Alto del Morredero (8.8km à 9.5%) that was put in question hours before due to strong winds in the area, but that did not have any incidence in the end.

The start of the stage was essentially flat, which did not make the breakaway formation to be any easier. After 30 kilometres, a group of 8 riders went clear, formed by Antonio Tiberi, Madis Mihkels, Harold Tejada, Joel Nicolau, Brandon Rivera, Patrick Gamper, Luca van Boven and Timo Roosen.

They would eventually be joined by four more riders (Sergio Samitier, Gijs Leemreize, Jonas Gregaard and Léandre Lozouet), making it twelve riders in the break of the day. Behind, Visma proved they wanted to fight for the stage victory with Jonas Vingegaard, tightly controlling the break and never allowing the gap to go above the 2-minute mark.

Race situation stayed stable for most of the day, with the break slowly losing time until they were caught soon before the final ascent to El Morredero. There, Visma and Bora set the tempo, making some important riders such as Felix Gall struggle and get dropped very early.

Jai Hindley was the first man to try his luck, launching an attack with around 6km to go and making Almeida suffer a lot to close the gap. It was just six riders surviving in front in the last kilometres – Vingegaard, Almeida, Hindley, Pellizzari, Pidcock and Riccitello – and none of them seemed interested in attacking until Pellizzari struck and went solo.

Only Riccitello committed to the chase, as both are rivals for the white jersey, but he did not find any collaboration and couldn’t close the gap. Pellizzari flew away and got his first professional win, while Pidcock and Hindley completed the podium.

Once the stage finished, we asked some of our writers to share their thoughts and main takeaways about what happened today.

An odd stage, Visma had no reason to chase on, but them burning van Baarle and Kelderman meant that they were thinking of a possible stage, it could only be with that purpose. Regardless if they knew or not that he had the legs.

So we had a fast chase on the breakaway and an unusual final climb, which was brutal, but was made very tactical because of the wind and because the two strongest climbers on paper were not actually the strongest climbers.

By the end of the stage what we can assume, by the fact that in the sprint both Pidcock and even the non-explosive Jai Hindley dropped them, is that neither Vingegaard or Almeida had the legs to attack each other or the others. So both settled with just staying in the wheels whilst the rest battled for the podium/top5 positions and the stage win.

Pellizzari's win was deserved, and the only logical outcome as BORA was the only team with two men and Pidcock was never going to let Hindley get away. A GC stalemate virtually at the end of the day, the positions that matter the most have seen pretty much no differences, and Bola del Mundo shouldn't be too different I would say. The time-trial tomorrow will be the determining factor on who wins and who finished third in this Vuelta.

Felix Gall seemed to be in trouble early on at El Morredero, but while Visma pushed the pace, the Austrian managed to claw his way back. A typical show of resilience from Gall: the cat with nine lives but this comeback turned out to be his ninth.

With ten riders left, the race hit the final seven kilometers. One kilometer later, the group had been whittled down to just four: Pidcock, Vingegaard, Hindley, and Riccitello. Behind them, Almeida fought his own battle—both against the top contenders and in the white jersey duel between the American Riccitello and the Italian Pellizari. With a smooth cadence and lighter gear, Almeida clawed his way back, towing Pellizari along with him.

As the helicopter circled above the charred black slopes of El Morredero, the action on the road took an unexpected twist. With five kilometers to go, Almeida cracked again. At that point, Hindley looked the strongest. Yet just one kilometer later, the six were back together, right when Red Bull’s Pellizari launched a double attack.

The gap grew quickly, while the others hesitated and looked at each other. For a moment, it felt as if the stage was gone. Pellizari emptied his bottle, powered on, and seemed destined for glory. With 1.5 kilometers to go, his lead was already over 20 seconds.

Sixth at the Giro, fifth at the Vuelta—and now, finally, his first professional victory. Red Bull’ - BORA's drought is over. With two riders in the top six, they had the numbers on paper, but someone still had to finish the job.

Thanks to their youngest gun, they claimed one of the most memorable stages of this Vuelta. An unforgettable first pro win for a rider we will be hearing a lot more about. Too bad we couldn’t catch his post-race interview LIVE, because once this guy from the heartland of Italy starts talking, he doesn’t stop. A special character. Giulio Pellizari.

Must agree with Ruben Silva there. It was clear that both Almeida and Vingegaard didn't seem to have the legs today. Also rare, seeing them talk to eachother close to the mountain top. Saving energy for the TT?

Finally, a day without incidents involving protesters. Although the ICU and the race organizers continue to whistle in the air, who's footing the bill? The Spanish State, the Spanish taxpayers. Seeing the number of police officers assigned to keep the race going to Madrid, it's not the organizers paying the police; that's a guarantee. It's the government, who wants to project the image of a Spain reeling from the genocide in Gaza and Palestine. I'm proud of the Spanish people, for their courage and for drawing the world's attention in this way.

On the bike, we had a controlled and tight-lipped breakaway through Visma. As the final climb approached, things heated up, with the BORA cyclists drinking Red Bulls to set a suffocating pace, which caused many riders to take off and reduced the group of favorites to just a handful of riders.

When the terrain turned steep, Visma took the lead, leaving UAE alone. You could argue that with those steep slopes, strength determines who's strongest, but I'll argue: Visma had three men and Red Bull two. The leaders of those two teams weren't going alone.

But Almeida did. After the first attack, the Portuguese rider didn't engage in the collision, as is his style, and towed the man of the day with him back to the group of favorites: Pellizzari. Riccitello tried hard, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 times... but the Italian was already too far behind.

Vingegaard is the new Nairo Quintana of the peloton. The Colombian from Movistar can hang up his bike and leave his legacy in good hands. That's why I don't like the Dane's racing style. He's a wheel-sucking maniac.

I think it is so striking that UAE, a team with 7 stage victories and 4 different winners so far, is incapable of surrounding Joao Almeida in the final climb. The Portuguese was left alone right after starting the ascent, no Ayuso, no Soler, no Vine, no Grosschartner. Meanwhile, Vingegaard had Kuss, Jorgenson and Tulett next to him.

It is clear Vingegaard is far from top shape, and today was another proof of that. In normal circumstances, he would have attacked when Almeida was struggling at the beginning of Morredero, or at least later to take advantage of the weakness he showed, especially because his team worked the whole day for him.

However, he didn’t move, but he just followed the wheels of others. The feeling is that he is in a descending progression, and he is not entering the third week in outstanding shape, but quite the opposite. In that situation, the smartest move is to play defensively as he has done today and just follow others’ attacks, avoiding the risk of attacking himself and emptying the tank.

That strategy is not the most attractive for the spectators but I don’t think he has any other choice. Today was a perfect day to slam his fist on the table and show he is the ultimate boss of the race, clearing doubts about his physical condition and building a comfortable lead over Almeida in order to decide the race.

He didn’t have the legs for that, and that helped to keep Almeida in the race. The Portuguese was clearly suffering in the steep slopes of Morredero, losing some meters several times and struggling a lot to close the gaps. He was lucky Jonas didn’t have his day either, so the race is still very open. Good for Almeida, good for us too.