'We did a team time trial of 220km' says Vuelta a España stage winner Gilbert

Philippe Gilbert after winning stage 17 (Image credit: Getty Images)

On a dramatic stage 17 at the Vuelta a España, Philippe Gilbert took a faultlessly-calculated second stage win after his Deceuninck-QuickStep team dominated a 40-rider breakaway for over 200 kilometres.

"It was a historical stage, I've never done one like that before," Gilbert said afterwards. "We did a team time trial of 220 kilometres with seven of our eight riders ahead."

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Alasdair Fotheringham

Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The IndependentThe GuardianProCycling, The Express and Reuters.