Stage 16 (Circuito de Navarra - Logroño )
Time Trial (40.2km)
The Stage
The race’s only time trial and a vital stage in the overall standings. 40 kilometres long, it is mainly flat and one for the powerhouses.
The Route
Uncomplicated. The riders start from the Los Arcos race track and make their way out to Los Arcos, where they then turn through Torres Del Rio, where they face some rolling terrain that at times will tough 5% but no more, and then choppy descents afterwards on the NA-110.
These rises last for about 6km but the last 16.4km is either downhill or flat as they pass through Viana and then reach the finish in Logrono.
The Finish
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Full of roundabouts but not overly complicated despite three turns in the final kilometre.
The Rider
An out and out time trialist.
The Contenders
This looks a shootout between Australian specialist Rohan Dennis and leader Chris Froome. Dennis, part of the squad that won the opening stage team time trial, he took both of the time trials in the Tour de Suisse and also the closing time trial at Tirreno-Adriatico.
Froome was sixth and third in the two-time trials at the Tour but no more importantly it was where he gained the bulk of his time against his rivals and on a course that suits him more than any one of his general classification contenders he will be looking to put minutes into his rivals. This time last year, on a course that was not much different to this, he trashed Jonathan Castroviejo by 44 seconds, with the Spanish Champion the only man to get within a minute.
The gaps between him and his main rivals stretched from 1:57 (Alberto Contador) to 3:13 (Esteban Chavez) and their task today will be to try and limit their losses.
Vincenzo Nibali was sixth in the first Giro time trial which took place over rolling, hilly terrain, and 13th in the last, considerably flatter test against the clock. He lost 2:07 to Tom Dumoulin in the first test, a result which disappointed him at the time, but by the last road stage he only lost a minute to the eventual winner and the Italian is a better time trialist than a great deal of his top 10 rivals and will look to put more time on his other rivals whilst not losing all hope of red.
Other rivals who will be looking forward to today include Ilnur Zakarin, the Russian national champion who now sits in third, and Wilco Kelderman, who both shared the same time when they met in the final time trial at the Tour du Suisse.
Yves Lampaert is more than capable of producing a strong time trial against the clock and he has done this season although he was well behind Dennis in the Tour de Suisse both times. He was fourth in the equivalent of this time trial last year, just two seconds behind Tobias Ludvigsson, who has shown his strength by getting into a lot of breakaways so far during the Vuelta.
Tejay Van Garderen has suffered badly through the high mountains but has impressive form against the clock in the past and Bob Jungels is an excellent time trialist who has also blown a lot during the high mountains but has the ability to go well.
