The moment Aqua Blue Sport won a stage of La Vuelta 2017; its first ever Grand Tour.
Aqua Blue Sport takes Vuelta stage win
Irish team Aqua Blue Sport has taken a Vuelta stage win in its first ever Grand Tour, with Stefan Denifl.
The Austrian took a lone victory from the early breakaway on today's stage 17. He claimed victory by 28 seconds from Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo).
Denifl had shown his form before the Vuelta by winning the Tour of Austria outright.
His win today comes after a testing Vuelta for Aqua Blue Sport. The battle of the race was made worse by its bus being destroyed in an arson attack.
“This is for my girlfriend and little boy. I think they’re watching at home," a delighted and exhausted Denifl said after his ride.
"I can’t believe it; I'd super, super legs today and I was waiting the whole Vuelta for this day.
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"I paced myself the whole Vuelta, and today I went all in. It’s just amazing. For me team, Aqua Blue we’re at our first Grand Tour here, and winning a stage; I’m over the moon.
“You always have to believe to win, and when I felt my legs I was like, ‘Oh my God. These legs are super good.’
"And I just kept on pushing. The climb was perfect for me with some flats parts in between for recovery.
"Now I won a stage in the Vuelta. It’s the best day in my cycling life.”
Of the Irish in the race; Nicolas Roche (BMC Racing) was 22nd today, at 2:32. However, his GC race is over and he will hope to get a chance for a stage win before the race is out.
Conor Dunne - a team mate of stage winner Denifl - was 155th, some 24:01 down.
How Aqua Blue Sport won the day
No Grand Tour stage win comes easy. But as victories at this level go, Denifl did it the hard way.
He got clear early in a breakaway featuring some quality riders in great form. And he then dropped them and conquered a savage finale solo.
His victory is richly deserved by Aqua Blue Sport; a new and small ProContinental team fighting far, far above its weight in its first season.
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The riders set out from Villadiego today to Los Machucos Monumento Vaca Pasiega; a 180.4km road.
Denifl was successful in getting clearly very shortly after the start with Alessandro De Marchi (BMC) and Dani Moreno (Movistar) for company.
That trio swelled to six when Magnus Cort (Orica-Scott), king of the mountains Davide Villella (Cannondale-Drapac) and stage 8 winner Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Floors) joined them after 30km.
As groups go it was a great one to get a gap and keep it. But it was a very tough combination of riders to win from.
Just after the race passed the halfway point, the gap had gone over nine minutes, as Astana began to assist Team Sky in the chase.
By the cat 2 Portillo de Lunada the gap had almost halved; many climbers back the road clearly still harbouring hopes of victory.
Due to the chase, the gap would continue to fall. As a result, not many would have wagered on the escape making it all the way.
For example, they had only 2:30 as they neared the cat 1 Puerto de Alisas.
And with a rapid descent to follow before the concluding slog up the brutal Alto de los Machucos, it looked like a final made for a climber on a great day to come from behind.
There were attacks back in the thinning peloton; the Orica-Scott pair of Adam Yates and Esteban Chaves jumping on the Puertos de Alisas.
In addition, a number of others scattered across to them. But Team Sky kept their heads and the move came to nothing.
Down the climb and onto the next one and Denifl stepped up. He looked to be on the ride of his life and he was.
He dropped all of those he was with as the GC battle roared behind him. Contador would attack 6km from the finish and he got very close to the lone leader.
Contador can't upset Aqua Blue Sport
And Contador wasn’t the only one to get away from Froome; a lucky man to have Mikel Nieve riding for him today.
Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) would get clear of Froome as would Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain Merida), Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha Alpecin), Rafal Majka (Bora hansgrohe), Michael Woods (Cannondale-Drapac) and Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb).
However, Denifl didn’t concern himself with any of that; he rode his heart out and took victory with Contador just 28 seconds behind him.
Consequently, Froome would keep his race lead. But he lost 42 seconds to Nibali who is 2nd overall.
Furthermore, Kelderman - who is having a great ride in 3rd overall - clawed back 27 seconds on the race leader.
The leader still has a gap of 1:16 on Nibali and 2:13 on Kelderman. But Froome's time loss today will encourage his rivals with more climbing to come.
Most noteworthy, Saturday's stage may prove a fantastic one. While Froome will be up for the fight, it ends on the summit of the HC Alto de L'Angliru.
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