Stage 17: Santander to Fuente Dé, 187.3km
So, after that big weekend of exceptional mountain finishes, there won’t be any more fireworks, right? Don’t bloody bet on it! This stage should be fairly straightforward in that, just after the rest day, the peloton will probably sit up and let the breakaway do just that. Can’t imagine they’d be chased down. But does that matter? Remember Monday’s stage or the day before: a breakaway got away and it kicked off big-time behind them with the Fantastic Four trying everything to crack each other. Will that be the case today? Well, Contador doesn’t want to come second. The stage itself has a mild Cat 3 and two Cat 2 climbs – that second Cat 2 provides the fourth summit finish in a row and is long (17.3km), but with only a 3.9% gradient, the finish won’t look like it’s in slow motion.
