Trek Factory Racing's Boy Van Poppel will the first of 167 rider to start the Vuelta a Espana's stage 17 38.4km individual time trial that starts and finishes in Burgos. The older brother of stage 12 winner Danny will leave the start house at 13:34 with riders leaving at one minute intervals thereafter until Nicolas Roche at 15:51 when riders will leave at two minute intervals.
Race leader Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) will be the last rider to start the stage at 16:49 as he looks to protect his one second lead over Fabio Aru (Astana).
The flat course figure of eight course features one time check after 5km starts.
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Time trial specialist and winner of the Giro d'Italia's 59km test against the clock in May, Vasil Kiryienka (Team Sky), will start at 14:54 and looks likely to set an early marker for the general classification riders to match. Former U23 world champion Damien Howson is the 11th rider to start the time trial with a top ten result within reach of the Orica-GreenEdge rider. Jurgen Van den Broeck, at 15:26 and Luis Leon Sanchez twenty minutes later are two more riders in contention for a high overall result.
The focus of the stage will be centred on Tom Dumoulin's (Giant-Alpecin) quest to overturn a 1:51 minute deficit to Rodriguez and the battle for the overall victory. The last occasion Rodriguez wore a grand tour leader's jersey in a time trial was the final day test against the clock at the 2012 Giro d'Italia when he conceded 47 seconds to Ryder Hesjedal and slipped to second overall.
"I'm not making any calculations," Rodriguez said of the course, “I just have to do it very well, and everybody else, not so well. Let's play the game and see how it works out. The pressure is on him [Dumoulin] because he's the top favourite to win the Vuelta, but there's always the chance I'll do a great time trial. And I've got a time gap which, even if it's not what I'd like, isn't so bad, either."
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