While it took time to understand everyone’s intentions and strategies during the 17th stage of the Tour of Italy, it was ultimately the escapees and Georg Steinhauser who had the last word. The German won solo on Wednesday at the top of the Passo del Brocon and at 22 years old, this is his first victory among the pros, for his first Grand Tour, during which he was active from the start, including a 3rd place already on Sunday during the Livigno stage, behind Tadej Pogacar and Nairo Quintana.
Everything will finally come together in the easiest of the day’s climbs, the third of five, the Gobbera pass. At that point, the breakaway only had a lead of around thirty seconds. It had formed gradually in the first pass of the day, the Passo Sella, climbed from the start, both in the ascent, the descent then in the end of the valley which followed. There were Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-Quick Step), Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier (Lidl-Trek), Giulio Pellizzari (Bardiani), Georg Steinhauser (EF), Damiano Caruso (Bahrain), Marco Frigo (Israel), Davide Ballerini (Astana), Attila Valter (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Nicola Conci (Alpecin-Deceuninck).
The gap to the peloton had never really taken off, largely because Romain Bardet’s DSMs were rolling to try to propel the Frenchman to the front. In the Passo Gobbera, Bardet tried to make the jump 62 km from the finish, led by his teammate Kevin Vermaerke, but they were followed by Tadej Pogacar himself, which annihilated their operation, and reduced the group of favorites to barely twenty riders and doomed the breakaway.
O’Connor coincée
What followed was a time out in the group of favorites, a moment of hesitation, which Ghebreigzabhier exploited to revive. The Eritrean took the lead, before being joined by Steinhauser, who started on the counter. The duo opened up a gap of two minutes on the peloton, before 2 km from the top of the first ascent of Brocon, on a slope other than that of the final ascent, 34 km from the finish, Steinhauser is naturally detached, without even really attacking.
The German from EF-EasyPost presented himself at the foot of the last pass with three minutes in advance, a sufficient margin, even if Pogacar only failed at 1’24”. Because in the Maillot Rose group, operations began a little over 3 km from the finish. Ben O’Connor, 4th in the general classification at the start of the stage, got stuck at that moment, under the pace of Thymen Arensman and the Ineos. Daniel Martinez took the opportunity to accelerate in turn, marked then relayed by Pogacar, who was once again going to abandon all his rivals. On the line, the Pink Jersey pocketed another twenty seconds on Martinez and Geraint Thomas, who follow him in the general classification.
