photo credits @ Giro d’Italia
Roger Kluge (IAM Cycling) took a surprising win in stage 17 of the Giro d’Italia today, after the German rider managed to ride clear of the peloton and catch the final breakaway group during the last kilometer to claim a solo victory in Cassano d’Adda.
Kluge responded to an attack from Filippo Pozzato in the final kilometer, where and the IAM Cycling rider rider easily overtook the Italian on the final straight to hold off the sprinting favorites.
Meanwhile, race leader Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) had little trouble protecting his 3-minute lead over Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) during today’s mostly flat 196-kilometer stage, to retain his grip on the maglia rosa.
Race Highlights
Daniel Oss (BMC), Pavel Brutt (Tinkoff) and Eugert Zhupa (Wilier-Southeast) marked the day’s first breakaway group, as the three riders succeeded in riding clear during the first two kilometers.
From there, the trio went on to establish almost a six minute advantage over the peloton.
However, their lead would eventually fall to under a minute once they entered into the final 30 kilometers.
Not long after, the escapees were joined by Maxim Belkov (Katusha), Lars Bak (Lotto-Soudal) and Ignatas Konovalovas (FDJ), who managed to hold onto a a 20 second gap before before Kluge emerged out of the crashing peloton to catch and pass the leaders inside the final kilometer, and go on to seize a solo victory.
Top 10 Finishers
1 Roger Kluge (Ger) IAM Cycling 4:31:29 2 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 3 Nikias Arndt (Ger) Team Giant-Alpecin 4 Sacha Modolo (Ita) Lampre-Merida 5 Matteo Trentin (Ita) Etixx-QuickStep 6 Alexander Porsev (Rus) Team Katusha 7 Pim Ligthart (Ned) Lotto Soudal 8 Ramunas Navardauskas (Ltu) Cannodale Pro Cycling 9 Manuel Belletti (Ita) Willier Trestina – Southeast 10 Paolo Simion (Ita) Bardiani CSF
General Classification after stage 17
1 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 68:11:39 2 Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica-GreenEdge 0:03:00 3 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 0:03:23 4 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:04:43 5 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Team Katusha 0:04:50 6 Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff Team 0:05:34 7 Bob Jungels (Lux) Etixx – Quick-Step 0:07:57 8 Andrey Amador (CRc) Movistar Team 0:08:53 9 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale 0:10:05 10 Kanstantsin Siutsou (Blr) Dimension Data 0:11:03
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