(Reuters) – Rigoberto Uran held off Quentin Pacher and Jesus Herrada in a thrilling sprint finish to win stage 17 of the Vuelta e Espana on Wednesday as overall leader Remco Evenepoel maintained his advantage and edged closer to a maiden Grand Tour title.
Herrada of Cofidis looked set to take the win with under a kilometre to go before EF Education-EasyPost’s Uran chased him down with 200m left to claim his first Grand Tour stage victory since 2017.
The Colombian has now won a stage in each of cycling’s three Grand Tours, the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta e Espana.
Back in the peloton, Evenepoel never looked like relinquishing his red jersey despite a late surge from Enric Mas as the Belgian cashed in on the absence of main rival Primoz Roglic who had been in second place.
Roglic, bidding for a fourth straight Vuelta crown, withdrew from the race following a heavy crash on the home stretch of Tuesday’s stage 16.
The riders tackle the mountains again on Thursday in a 192km journey from Trujillo to Alto de Piornal.
(Reporting by Dhruv Munjal in Bengaluru, editing by Ed Osmond)
