Wednesday’s seventeenth stage of the Giro d’Italia was one for the breakaway. Michael Valgren was the best of the escapees who skirmished continually over the day, taking his first Grand Tour stage at 34, adding it to the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Amstel Gold Race on his palmares. Derek Gee-West, who came in 50th, is now the only Canadian in the race with Nickolas Zukowsky’s abandonment.
Preliminaries
After Tuesday’s mountain skirmishing and before Thursday’s sprinters’ challenge, Wednesday seemed suited for a breakaway.
The Course
Following the first flat 55 km, there was an upwards trend all the way to the finish line. Only three climbs were categorized, all moderate ascents. The final 2.3 km to the line was 6.3 percent.
A breakaway of 11 formed, tipping over Cat. 2 Passo dei Tre Termini in the clear. By Cat. 2 Cocca di Lodrino, there was an 18-strong chase closing in on the original breakaway, the peloton 3:00 back. The two groups merged at the peak. Damiano Caruso was best placed on GC at 13th. Fugitive Rémi Cavagna took his leave of the others.
With 118 km to ride, Nickolas Zukowsky abandoned the race, his ribs still sore from his crash in Milan.
Cavagna had the wind in his sails, and with the pink jersey group seemingly uninterested in running down the breakaway, he pulled out a 2:00 gap.
With 72 km remaining, the Frenchman was 2:30 in front of the chase and 7:00 in front of the pink jersey. The sky celebrated his chutzpah by tipping rain down on all and sundry. It did not dampen Cavagna’s spirits. It took an attempt to bridge from David de la Cruz to end Cavagna’s 57-km solo ride, just in time for Jhonatan Narvaez to take the day’s intermediate sprint and nick Paul Magnier’s purple points jersey.
Caruso and a few others bounded clear, eliciting all sorts of reactions from their breakmates. The escapees were all over the road. As they approached the Red Bull Kilometre, a group of 10 led a group of eight by half a minute. At the foot of the final climb to the line, Einer Rubio and Valgren led the race, Caruso, Stage 5 winner Igor Arrieta, Aleksandr Vlasov and Andreas Leknessund hot on their heels.
With Arrieta on his way over, Rubio tried to shed Valgren. Arrieta linked up. Caruso brought his gang over just under 2 km to go. Six riders passed under the red kite and…
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