Daniele Bennati (capture-the-peloton.com)

TALAVERA, Sep 19 (CP) - The seventeenth stage of the Vuelta a España turned out to be an Italian matter, with Daniele Bennati taking the victory ahead of Bettini and Petacchi.

With a relatively flat course from Ciudad Real to Talavera, the remaining sprinters knew that this was the moment to take advantage of the absence of most of their rivals.

Juan Olmo Menacho and Jorge Garcia Marin formed a lead duo and had a maximum advantage of about five minutes.

From there on, the race was controlled by the sprinters' teams and as expected, the whole peloton was back together at six kilometers from the finish.

Milram then organized the final sprint, hoping to earn their fourth stage victory in this Vuelta.

However, Bennati was smarter and chose the right path to block Alessandro Petacchi's route to the finish line.

The Lampre rider managed to stay ahead of Paolo Bettini and Petacchi to take the win, his second in this year's edition of the Spanish race.

There were no changes in the top of the general classification, meaning that Denis Menchov continues to lead with four stages left to go.

© Jonathan Roorda