Tom Dumoulin demonstrated his time-trial prowess to win stage 17 with ease and take the overall lead of the Vuelta a Espana on Wednesday.

The Giant-Alpecin rider was expected to come to the fore in Burgos given that he finished third in the time trial world championships last year.

And the 25-year-old from the Netherlands made the most of his opportunity to reclaim the red jersey, living up to his billing as favourite to reclaim the red jersey with only four stages remaining.

Dumoulin clocked 46 minutes and one second, averaging 50.5 kilometres per hour, to take an overall lead of three seconds from Astana's Fabio Aru, with previous leader Joaquim Rodriguez now over a minute back and his chances of winning on home soil looking slim.

He was just over a minute quicker than second-placed Maciej Bodnar (Tinkoff-Saxo) over the 38.7 km route, with the impressive a close third Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) as he was 1:08 slower than Dumoulin.

Dumoulin was 1:53 faster than Aru, who will fancy his chances of overhauling the new leader in what promises to be a fascinating final four days of racing.

Rodriguez was brought back down to earth as he finished over three minutes down on Dumoulin, so Aru would appear to be the favourite after what could prove to be a pivotal day.

Bodnar's team-mate Rafal Majka is 2:22 back from Dumoulin, with Nairo Quintana (Movistar) 2:53 down on the new leader.

A 204km stage 18 from Roa to Riaza is in store for the riders on Thursday.