Stage 17

The road

At the start

Galicia, and a sprint in A Coruña

Two riders were disqualified out of yesterday's queen stage, Ivan Rovny and Gianluca Brambilla, and Rigoberto Urán does not start this morning. Alberto Contador won at La Farrapona and leads Alejandro Valverde by 1:36 and Chris Froome by 1:39. Today winds 190 kilometres around the Galician coast to A Coruña without a classified climb — the sprinters' first chance in nearly a week.

How it was won

1. 125 km to go

   Two minutes into the last 25km

   The sprinters' teams never let the escape past four minutes, but with Dennis and Jungels driving it the break still carries two minutes into the final 25 kilometres of the day, and the pace behind keeps ratcheting up.

2. 23 km to go

   A cobbled kick with 3km to go

   Sky mass at the front — not to launch Froome, simply to keep him out of trouble on the creased finale — and Alberto Contador makes very sure he is glued to the Briton's wheel over the cobbled rise.

3. 3At the line

   Degenkolb, fastest man standing

   Dennis and Favilli are caught inside the last kilometre and the sprint is chaos. Ferrari opens far too early and fades; Matthews leaves it late; Degenkolb hits the front 150 metres out with no lead-out at all and holds them all off for his fourth win of this Vuelta.

The result