Jornada de relativa calma para el lider y sus escoltas, en la etapa 17 del Giro de Italia edicion centenario que fue ganada por el francés Pierre Rolland del Cannondale, convirtiéndola en su primera victoria de los grandes eventos de ruta en casi 5 años de carrera.
El pedalista de 30 se decidio atacar dentro de un grupo de unos 25 pedalistas a falta de 7 kiloemtros y medio para terminar la jornada de 219 kilometros y considerada de media montaña, para terminar superando a Rui Costa y Giorka Izaguirre, quienes le escoltaron en ese orden de llegada…
Para el lider Dumoulin y la mayoria de sus rivales decidieron recuperarse del esfuerzo de la jornada previa y reservar para el epico encuentro con el Stelvio.
Finally, after so many near misses, and so many setbacks, Pierre Rolland delivered in Cannondale Drapac colours to win stage 17 of the Giro d’Italia in nail-biting fashion. The 30-year-old was certainly forced to do it the hard way – attacking as part of a three-man move at the start of the 219km stage before jumping clear once more from a group of around 25 with 7.6km to go.
The Frenchman, who signed to Cannondale at the start of 2016 ended his team’s two-year wait for a Grand Tour stage win, as well as his own five-year drought – to solo across the line for a memorable win as Rui Costa (UAE Emirates) and Gorka Izagirre (Movistar) rounded out the top three on the day.
For race leader Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) it was a relatively calm day in the saddle with the majority of his rivals deciding to rest their legs after stage 16 and an epic encounter on the Stelvio. There were some changes inside the top ten as Jan Polanc (UAE Emirates) used his chance in the break to ruffle some feathers but the day was eventually decided by the near 40-strong break that formed in the first half of the stage