Vuelta Stage 17: Tom Dumoulin demolishes rivals in time trial to take race lead

Tom Dumoulin of Giant-Alpecin is back in the lead of the Vuelta after demolishing his rivals for the overall victory in today's individual time trial in Burgos.

It's the third time the Dutch rider has taken the lead of the 70th edition of the race, but he is only 3 seconds ahead of Astana's Fabio Aru who will have opportunities to overhaul Dumoulin in the coming days.

Maciej Bodnar of TCS, the 18th of the 167 riders left in the race to start, occupied the hot seat of stage leader designate for most of the afternoon with a time of 47 minutes 5 seconds.

But once Dumoulin, who began the stage fourth overall, 1 minute 51 seconds off the race lead, set off on his charge, it seemed unlikely the Polish rider would still be sitting there come the end of the afternoon.

So it proved as the Giant-Alpecin rider smashed that time by more than a minute, completing the 38.7 kilometre course in 37 minutes 1 second.

By the first time check at 13.5 kilometres he had taken more than a minute from race leader Joaquim Rodriguez of Katusha, and a shade under three quarters of a minute from Astana’s Fabio Aru, second this morning.

He was also taking time from Rafal Majka of Tinkoff-Saxo, third overall at the start of the stage.

Of the three, Aru managed to limit his losses best, and is just 3 seconds behind Dumoulin overall, and will have a strong chance of taking the race lead on Saturday’s penultimate stage in the mountains outside Madrid, if not before.

Rodriguez, who lost the lead of the 2012 Giro d’Italia to Garmin-Sharp’s Ryder Hesjedal in a time trial on the very last day in Milan, is 1 minute 15 seconds behind the leader, with Majka a further 1 minute 17 seconds behind.