"Three more stages at least to play for it and a lot of teams with people to play. This Vuelta is no...no...no...it's not over yet, not at all."

Those were the words of Astana's Fabio Aru after stage seventeen at the Vuelta a España, an individual time trial. Aru finished tenth, 1:53 behind stage winner and new race leader Tom Dumoulin of the Netherlands.

Aru began the day 1:51 ahead of Dumoulin in General Classification, and is now 3 seconds back, in second place, with previous race leader Joaquim Rodriquez of Spain now third, 1:15 from the new leader. Aru rode a stronger than expected second half of the mostly flat time trial around Burgos, and held his losses better than expected against the Dutch rider, a time trial specialist.

The next three stages do not end uphill, but each feature significant hills to climb and mountains to cross daily. There are many technical sectors and tactical opportunities. Astana Pro Team is strong to end the Vuelta a España on the podium, and stronger still to try and end there in Madrid on the topmost step .

“If I had got the lead back, I’d be even happier,” Aru added. "But in any case, finishing and seeing that I was in second feels like a good time trial. Three seconds down is not bad at all.

"There’s also going to be a battle for the podium. It’s going to be like it was in the last few days, or maybe even harder.

“I worked a lot on my time trialling. What I did at the Giro is not a good comparison because I was feeling bad in the days beforehand. At the Tour of Poland, I rode a good time trial. I’m not a time trial rider, but I need to be able to save myself in them. I’ve been working on it.”