Stage 17 of the Giro d’Italia introduced with it the third summit end in a row and with it one other time acquire for the maglia rosa Tadej Pogačar. Behind him, the battle over the rest of the highest 10, together with the battle for the rostrum over seven minutes again, has, if not raged, then simmered.
In what has was a duel for second total, Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) briefly held the lead following the Garda time trial, holding agency alongside Dani Martínez (Bora-Hansgrohe) in Livigno earlier than ceding the place and 37 seconds on Monte Pana.
A day later, there was as soon as once more little to separate the 2 former teammates as they crossed the road atop the Passo Brocon stage on time in fourth and fifth to move into Thursday’s temporary respite from the mountains in Padova nonetheless with 22 seconds separating them.
Talking after the end, Thomas stated that his group, who set the tempo heading into the ultimate climb of the day and for almost all of its 11.8km, had carried out a superb job to arrange a possible assault on second place, even when he did not have the legs to make a ending transfer.
“We tried to set a superb tempo on the backside and tried to set as much as attempt to assault,” Thomas stated. “However I did not fairly have the legs to essentially go. I simply gave the impression to be on a par with Dani actually and some of the opposite boys. But it surely was a superb day from the group, and everybody rode rather well.
“It is how we have been using the entire race, actually. It is only a disgrace that Pogačar is nearly as good as he’s.”
As an alternative, it was Martínez who made the primary transfer from the choose GC group, two minutes down the mountain from breakaway stage winner Georg Steinhauser (EF Schooling-EasyPost).
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The assault, 2.4km from finish of the 155km stage, noticed Pogačar and Thomas react rapidly to remain on his wheel, whereas white jersey Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious), Einer Rubio (Movistar), and Romain Bardet (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) additionally held on.
Thomas stated later that he was completely happy to see Martínez assault, noting that he would’ve hoped to counter and push on forward. It wasn’t to be, nonetheless; as a substitute, it was Pogačar who rode away as soon as extra whereas one of the best of the remaining had been locked in a stalemate.
“I used to be type of completely happy for it – to attempt to go excessive,” Thomas stated of Martínez’s transfer. “However I did not have the legs to do this. I might’ve favored to have tried to go together with Pogačar, however I used to be already beginning to really feel the legs.
“It is the story of the race actually. Let him go forward after which race behind.”
The stage marked the third day in a row the place a rider from the breakaway – following on from Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and Giulio Pellizzari (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè) – rode into the ultimate kilometres because the GC motion kicked off behind, once more with Pogačar main.
Nevertheless, this time Steinhauser may pull off what the others could not to take pleasure in a stage win, his first as knowledgeable. He had been a part of the early break, too, a transfer which was caught after DSM-Firmenich PostNL placed on the tempo mid-stage.
Thomas stated that Pogačar’s UAE Group Emirates squad “weren’t too bothered” about snaffling yet one more win, although, resulting in one thing of a lull within the proceedings which ended up letting the profitable transfer go clear 60km from the end.
“You may inform that UAE weren’t too bothered in regards to the stage, for as soon as,” he stated, briefly summarising the day.
“They let a pleasant break go after which DSM rode an actual strong tempo excessive of one of many climbs after which down they went super-fast. The bunch was splitting, and it was chaos behind. They introduced the group again after which it was type of beginning once more. So we simply let some riders go, actually.”
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