Team Sky’s Chris Froome has taken a historic victory in the 2017 Vuelta Ciclista a España. Froome, 32, simultaneously has become both the first Briton to win Spain’s Grand Tour and the first rider to win the Tour de France and then the Vuelta a España since the latter changed dates from April to September in 1996.
Froome is one of just three riders to win both the Tour de France and Vuelta a España in the same season, together with Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault. Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) and Ilnur Zakarin (Team KatushaAlpecin) completed the podium of the last Grand Tour of the season.
The Vuelta a España was also Alberto Contador’s last professional race, which he culminated with a stage win on the Alto d’Angliru, Spain’s hardest single ascent, and fifth place overall.
Reigning UCI World Champion Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) captured the 100th victory of his career in the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec. Defending his 2016 victory in Québec, Sagan won a drawn-out bunch sprint to beat Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing Team) and Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb), second and third respectively.
Six-time Giro d’Italia stage winner Diego Ulissi (UAE Team Emirates) took his best ever Classic victory on Sunday, winning the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal ahead of Jesus Herrada (Movistar Team) and Tom-Jelte Slagter (Cannondale Drapac Professional Cycling Team).
Vuelta a España winner Chris Froome has rocketed up the UCI WorldTour individual rankings to second place overall. Longstanding leader Greg Van Avermaet remains in first place with 3,582 points, whilst Froome has 3,452. Meanwhile Team Sky has ousted Quick-Step Floors as leader of the UCI WorldTour teams ranking.
Il Lombardia (ITA) > Saturday October 7th
Xandro Meurisse races for Wanty-Groupe Gobert, one of Belgium’s UCI Professional Continental Teams. Meurisse, 25, has shown well in week-long stage races since turning pro with the An Post-Chainreaction team in 2015, finishing 10th in that year’s Tour of Britain. In 2016, Meurisse claimed his lone professional victory to date, a stage of the 4 Jours De Dunkerque/Tour du Nord-Pas-de-Calais from a five-man move. He finished third overall in the four-day event. In 2017, Meurisse has finished second in the Tour de Luxembourg and seventh in the Tour de Wallonie. Another victory will surely be coming soon.
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