After the rigours of the charged general battle dominated on Tuesday, stage 17 ought to shift the main target to the sprinters and permit the GC riders to muster their vitality for the essential days forward.
Although there are two class 2 ascents halfway via the stage, the chances are high that the quick males can be to the fore on the end in Santander, with the stage being the final clear-cut alternative for the sprinters.
The twin climbs of the Alto de La Estranguada and the Alto del Caracol will give the breakaway slightly respiration room however the street ranges out because the route winds in the direction of the Cantabrian coast, and that ought to give the remaining sprinters’ groups ample alternative to tee up a bunch finale.
Before Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) crashed out of the race on Tuesday the winner of three levels at this 12 months’s version of the race would have been one of many key favourites. However, now it is going to be Kaden Groves (Alpecin Deceuninck) racing to the road within the inexperienced jersey of the factors chief with rivals like Corbin Strong (Israel-Premier Tech) and Pavel Bittner (dsm-firmenich PostNL) attempting to trump the two-time stage winner.