What a Grand Tour it has been for the Australians at the 2024 Vuelta a Espana. With 17 stages down, the Green & Gold now have four stage wins and hold three of the leader's jerseys.
“It’s always good to see another fellow Aussie win. That’s four Aussie wins so far…" Red Jersey wearing Ben O'Connor reflected in his post-stage 17 interview, after seeing compatriot Kaden Groves sprint to his third stage win of the Grand Tour in a wet and technical finale in Santander ahead of Pavel Bittner, and Jay Vine retain his lead in the King of the Mountains classification. "Good day for Aussie cycling!"
For O'Connor himself, he still leads the general classification by 5 seconds from Primoz Roglic. Whilst stage 17 was a more relaxed day for the Red Jersey challengers, the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team leader is well aware that won't be the case in the next few days.
"It was a bit wet, not too hard, a little treacherous on the descents, but it wasn’t too complicated in the end. We’ve done a lot riding so far in this race so it was good for the boys to have a bit of a break, it was much needed," O'Connor concludes his assessment of the day, before casting an eye to the upcoming stage 18. "Tomorrow, break management will probably have to be a lot more pro-active but it should normally be an easier finish.”
| 1 | Groves Kaden | Alpecin-Deceuninck | 180 | 03:32:14 |
| 2 | Bittner Pavel | Team dsm-firmenich PostNL | 130 | + 00 |
| 3 | Braet Vito | Intermarché-Wanty | 95 | + 00 |
| 4 | Miquel Delgado Pau | Equipo Kern Pharma | 80 | + 00 |
| 5 | Strong Corbin | Israel-Premier Tech | 60 | + 00 |
| 6 | Campenaerts Victor | Lotto Dstny | 45 | + 00 |
| 7 | Planckaert Edward | Alpecin-Deceuninck | 40 | + 00 |
| 8 | Le Berre Mathis | ARKEA-B&B HOTELS | 35 | + 00 |
| 9 | Livyns Arjen | Lotto Dstny | 30 | + 00 |
| 10 | Berasategi Xabier | Euskaltel-Euskadi | 25 | + 00 |
🇪🇸 @lavuelta - Etape 17 La pluie était de retour pour cette étape de sprint. Nous sommes arrivés sans encombre jusqu'à la ligne, c'était le seul objectif de la journée ! 🙏 Not the nicest of weather today for this sprint stage. We made it safely to the finish and that was the…
