Chris Froome took a stellar stage win on stage 17 of the Vuelta a España, beating Juan José Cobo by one second. More importantly, the Briton picked up a crucial net gain of eight seconds on time bonuses, leaving him only 13 seconds behind in the overall classification. It will be an interesting battle all the way to Madrid on Sunday.
Froome was well prepared tactically for the finish of today's race, in which he shook off Cobo for the stage win and time bonus. "Last night I watched the video of the last part of last year's stage to Peña Cabarga at the Vuelta, so I knew that it was very hard in the last two kilometers. This is where I had to try and make the difference and I've respected my plan." Froome rode very aggressively, bringing Cobo to the point of cracking. The Spaniard described later that he was worried when Froome opened up a huge lead, but Cobo clawed himself back to Froome. "I've tried. I gave everything. I dropped him off but when I looked behind, I've seen that Cobo was coming across," Froome said. "I took a breather to give myself a chance to win the stage."
Getting the concentration together for the final leap to the line was important. "I obviously knew the importance of fighting for time bonus. That was always going through my mind. It's not bad to come back at thirteen seconds from Cobo with four days to go." But the Sky team has less and less suitable chances for decisive attacks. "It would have been nice to get the red jersey back today but I did everything I could. We'll fight till Madrid."
Froome's rise during the Vuelta was amazing, riding as domestique for Bradley Wiggins, who still is third overall. "I'm very happy. It's always been my dream to ride a Grand Tour for GC. I came with no pressure at the Vuelta because I wasn't expecting to do it this time around."
The intermediate sprints may become decisive now, but Froome was too tired to think of tactical maneuvers for the coming days. "To be honest, I haven't thought ahead of today. The strategy was to try and win the Vuelta up here today. But for sure, we're gonna keep fighting, including for time bonus."
Froome dismisses that he would be in a better position now if he hadn't ridden for Wiggins. "It's easy to look back afterwards. Things didn't happen as we expected. My role was to ride for Bradley and I've learned so much riding for him. I probably wouldn't be in this position without him, so I have no regret at all."