I tried to get the energy of the people to get me going

I'm happy that this La Vuelta is not decided... yet.

The red jersey still remains with Chris Froome after stage 17. Alberto Contador was one guy to attack and attack he did trimming more than a minute on Froome. This stage was made for the climbers with final ramps as steep as 28 percent. Stefan Denifil was brilliant becoming the first Austrian to win a Vuelta stage and to give the continental Aqua Blue Sport team a historic maiden grand tour victory. So well deserved especially after the arson attack that left their team bus a burnt wreck.



"I didn't know what was happening. I did not know Contador was coming for me. My radio was not working on the climb. It was amazing on that climb, there was so much people and I tried to enjoy it. You cannot enjoy it but I tried to get the energy of the people to get me going. Then like two kilometres to go I was looking back and I could see someone coming and I said to myself 'Stefan you have to put everything together in yourself to do this'. I fought to the last kilometer because I knew that I had a bit of downhill and you know it worked out."
- Stefan Denifil




"To be honest, this has been a very emotional day. Not in our wildest dreams did I think that we could have won a stage in our first Grand Tour. Just to be here, participating and to do what we did today. The conditions that we did it in, the last seven kilometres, it was like going up a wall. To see our name and Alberto Contador and Chris Froome chasing us and not catching us. I mean it was just surreal. I think it shows you the self-belief here in this team. Let's call it like it is, we don't have the best riders in the world and the guys have raw talent. I don't know what it is on this team but staff, riders everybody just seems to work. We get 150 per cent when we should only get 100 per cent."
- Rick Delaney, owner.

"When I got out of the saddle, the bike took off."

Perico Delgado and Juanjo Cobo tackle Los Machucos...