Only three stages are left until the Vuelta a Espana peloton arrives in Madrid. Today the time trial specialists get the chance to show their speed in a 37 kilometres long individual time trial.

Lotto Soudal sports director Mario Aerts gives his preview.

“An individual time trial this late in a Grand Tour is still interesting for two types of riders: the GC riders and the (semi-) time trial specialists. For Lotto Soudal we have Maxime Monfort as GC rider. He’s 18th on the GC at the moment and he can’t afford to take a day off. The ITT of today and the mountain stage of tomorrow are still very important for the general classification because on these stages he can still gain but also lose time.

“Our time trial specialist is Thomas De Gendt. He proved in the last Grand Tours that he’s still able to perform very well at the end of a three weeks race. An example of that is the last edition of the Tour de France where De Gendt finished sixth in the last ITT. However, the fact that he already rode the Tour might influence his performance today, but with De Gendt you never know.

“For guys like Bart de Clercq, Sander Armée, Louis Vervaeke and Adam Hansen, it’s important that they don’t waste too much energy on today’s time trial. Tomorrow there’s still a last hard mountain stage and they might play an important role there for the team.”