Chris Froome claimed his second stage win of the 2017 Vuelta a Espana to extend his overall race lead on Vincenzo Nibali to 1min 58sec with victory in the individual time trial on Tuesday.
Froome beat out Wilco Kelderman and Nibali in a time of 47mins for the 40.2km 16th stage from the Navarra motor racing circuit to Logrono.
The Briton, who is aiming to become only the third rider in history to win the Tour de France and Vuelta in the same year, now has just four competitive stages to defend his lead before Sunday’s traditional parade around Madrid.
However, Nibali’s impressive showing in finishing just 57 seconds behind his rival for the leader’s red jersey on the day maintained his hopes of a second Vuelta win with a series of strenuous climbs, including Saturday’s queen stage up the Alto de L’Angliru, still to come.
Kelderman’s second place moved the Dutchman ahead of Ilnur Zakarin into third overall.
Vuelta a Espana 2017 – stage 16 results (Circuito de Navarra – Logrono ITT):
| 1 | Chris Froome (Team Sky) | 47:00 |
| 2 | Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) | +29” |
| 3 | Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain Merida) | +57” |
| 4 | Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) | +59” |
| 5 | Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) | ,, |
| 6 | Tobias Ludvigsson (FDJ) | +01’07” |
| 7 | Wout Poels (Team Sky) | +01’11” |
| 8 | Lennard Kamna (Team Sunweb) | +01’30” |
| 9 | Bob Jungels (Quick-Step Floors) | +01’41” |
| 10 | Daniel Oss (BMC) | +01’49” |
| 11 | Alexis Gougeard (AG2R) | +01’50” |
| 12 | Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) | +01’55” |
| 13 | Yves Lampaert (Quick-Step Floors) | +02’07” |
| 14 | Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNl-Jumbo) | +02’09” |
| 15 | Matteo Trentin (Quick-Step Floors) | +02’12” |
| 16 | Stef Clement (LottoNl-Jumbo) | +02’15” |
| 17 | Niki Terpstra (Quick-Step Floors) | +02’17” |
| 18 | Peter Koning (Aqua Blue Sport) | +02’19” |
| 19 | Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) | +02’25” |
| 20 | David De La Cruz (Quick-Step Floors) | +02’27” |
General classification after stage 16:
| 1 | Chris Froome (Team Sky) | 62:53:25 |
| 2 | Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain Merida) | +01’58” |
| 3 | Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) | +02’40” |
| 4 | Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) | +03’07” |
| 5 | Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) | +04’58” |
| 6 | Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) | +05’25” |
| 7 | Fabio Aru (Astana) | +06’27” |
| 8 | Wout Poels (Team Sky) | +06’33” |
| 9 | Esteban Chaves (Orica-Scott) | +06’40” |
| 10 | Michael Woods (Cannondale-Drapac) | +07’06” |
| 11 | Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) | +10’11” |
| 12 | David De La Cruz (Quick-Step Floors) | +10’14” |
| 13 | Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNl-Jumbo) | +10’17” |
| 14 | Louis Meintjes (UAE Team Emirates) | +12’44” |
| 15 | Mikel Nieve (Team Sky) | +23’20” |
| 16 | Sergio Padilla (Caja Rural – Seguros RGA) | +23’58” |
| 17 | Nicolas Roche (BMC) | +24’52” |
| 18 | Daniel Moreno (Movistar) | +31’43” |
| 19 | Romain Bardet (AG2R) | +39’04” |
| 20 | Darwin Atapuma (UAE Team Emirates) | +41’46” |
