Vuelta Stage 17: John Degenkolb takes 4th stage in thrilling sprint

John Degenkolb of Giant-Shimano, wearing the green jersey of points classification leader, has won his fourth stage of the 2014 Vuelta, winning a hard-fought sprint against Orica-GreenEdge's Michael Matthews and Trek Factory Racing's Fabian Cancellara to win in La Coruna.

The sprint finish was fought out by a select group that first had to reel in the last members of the day's break, including BMC Racing's Rohan Dennis, who had been angrily urging his companions to fight to stay away as the stage entered the closing kilometres, albeit without some of the physicality we've seen in recent days.

Behind, Team Sky racked up the pace, seeking to keep Chris Froome out of trouble, and the break was finally swept up in the closing few hundred metres as the fast men left in the race took what will be their last but one chance to fight for glory.

Froome remains third overall behind Saxo Tinkoff's A;lberto Contador and Alejandro Valverde of Movistar.

Following his win, Degenkolb said: “I feel very good. I enjoyed it today. We’ve worked hard for this victory. We’ve controlled all day and brought it to a bunch sprint at the end. It was worth it. We knew the finale.

“We rode it yesterday as our hotel was very close. But it was really not easy. It was also kind of a poker game. There were still riders ahead of me 500 metres before the line. I could sprint from 200 metres to go. I followed my instinct.”

The German now has a 35 point lead in the points competition over Alejandro Valverde but with limited opportunities now to add to his total he says “I have to be very realistic about the green jersey. It’s not in my hands.

“Today I made another big step towards winning the points competition but it all depends on breakaways to make it till the end or not in the next three days and how many points the GC riders can catch. To win the green jersey, I’ll need a bit of luck. But I don’t stress about that. I’ll catch some more points if there are some possibilities but that’s all I can do after winning today.”