The only long time trial of this Vuelta: 32.5 km along the coast, from El Puerto de Santa María to Jerez.
Largely flat, but with plenty of wind-exposed terrain along the Andalusian coast. In the third week, on tired legs, 32.5 kilometres against the clock can completely reshuffle the GC.
This time trial suits the powerful rouleurs better than the pure climbers. Anyone who lost time in the mountains can claw some back here — or lose everything instead.
A breakaway of Enzo Paleni and Sinuhé Fernández was never given much room all day, and even after Paleni pressed on alone he wasn't caught until three kilometres from the line. In the bunch sprint that followed, Wout van Aert delivered teammate Matthew Brennan flawlessly to victory, ahead of Jordi Meeus and Magnus Cort Nielsen. It's Brennan's fifth stage win of this Vuelta — making him the first rider ever to win five stages on a Grand Tour debut, one better than Fernando Gaviria's record, which he had only equalled the day before. For Visma-Lease a Bike, it's also the team's seventh stage win of this Vuelta, a new team record. Enric Mas keeps his red-jersey lead intact, while Brennan continues to eat into Van Aert's advantage in the points classification. The full story of stage 17, the general classification after seventeen stages, and a look ahead to the decisive time trial into Jerez.
The only long time trial of this Vuelta lived up to the billing. Stefan Küng powered to victory on the flat, wind-exposed 32.1km course from El Puerto de Santa María to Jerez de la Frontera, beating his Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe teammate Callum Thornley by three seconds and João Almeida by nine. But the day belonged to Enric Mas: riding the time trial of his life, the race leader conceded just 33 seconds to Primož Roglič, who moved above Felix Gall into second overall but still trails the red jersey by 1:37 with two mountain stages left. Gall lost nearly a minute and a half to Roglič on the stage and slipped to third at 3:01. The full story of stage 18, the general classification after eighteen stages, and a look ahead to Friday's mountain stage to Peñas Blancas.