Primoz Roglic wins Stage 17, takes back overall 2021 La Vuelta a Espana lead

Primoz Roglic won Stage 17 in a long breakaway to take back the overall 2021 La Vuelta a Espana lead from Odd Christian Eiking.

Primoz Roglic won Stage 17 of the 2021 La Vuelta a Espana retaking the overall lead away from Odd Christian Eiking who fell behind, could not make up the time and also wound up in a crash on a descent.

Roglic is also the defending champion from 2020 and he takes the lead away from Eiking who has held it since Stage 8.

Primoz Roglic works with Egan Bernal in a breakaway team effort

Both Egan Bernal and Primoz Roglic worked together to maintain a breakaway lead that the peloton could not close down throughout most of the mountain stage from Unquera to Lagos de Covadonga.

But during the final climb, Bernal faltered having expended too much energy leading the breakaway through the previous climbs and Roglic was able to leave him behind.

Bernal was soon caught by the second group of chasers breaking away from the rest of the peloton but Roglic went over the finish line first.

2021 La Vuelta a Espana overall standings change dramatically as Eiking falls behind

Eiking meanwhile found himself in the fifth group of riders trying to catch up and make up the time as best as he could as the peloton splintered into different groups during the stage.

On a descent, however, he and other riders end up crashing as bike tires slid on the wet road surface coming around a bend. While Eiking was able to get up and continue, other riders had to abandon the race.

It still left him a few minutes behind the new race leader while all the time Bernal managed to gain on his rivals in the top ten came undone as he got caught by them and had to come in over the finish line at the same time.

Bernal was however awarded the most combative title for the stage. Fabio Jakobsen maintained the sprints points lead and the green jersey and Romain Bardet stayed in the mountain climbing polka-dotted jersey.