Giant-Alpecin Team rider Tom Dumoulin of the Netherlands celebrates on the podium after winning the 17th stage individual time trial of the Vuelta Tour of Spain cycling race in Burgos, Spain Wednesday. — Reuters
MADRID — Dutchman Tom Dumoulin rocketed into the lead at the Tour of Spain when he crushed his main rivals in Wednesday's 17th stage time trial to put himself in a strong position to challenge for a debut grand tour triumph. One of the world's top trialists, Giant-Alpecin rider Dumoulin posted a scorching time of 46 minutes and one second over the 38-km course in Burgos to leapfrog overnight leader Joaquim Rodriguez of Spain (Katusha), Italian Fabio Aru of Italy (Astana) and Poland's Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo). With four stages remaining of the three-week race, the 24-year-old from Maastricht holds the leader's red jersey with a three-second advantage over Aru in second. Aru was just under two minutes slower than Dumoulin in the time trial and will look to put his climbing ability to good use on the remaining stages as he bids to improve on his second-placed finish in this year's Giro d'Italia. "There are still four stages to go," Aru told reporters. "This Vuelta is not over." Rodriguez is more than a minute back in third overall and Majka nearly 2-1/2 minutes adrift in fourth. Dumoulin, the first Dutchman since Joop Zoetemelk at the 1980 Tour de France to lead a grand tour in the final week, acknowledged there was still a long way to go. "Of course this Vuelta is not over yet," he also told reporters. "I still haven't thought about what might happen over the next few days and I want to celebrate this win with my teammates," he added. "I am not worried about any (of the remaining stages) but Friday's is the toughest and Astana will do everything they can to take away my leader's jersey." — Reuters
