Giro d’Italia: Yates Retains Jersey on Sprint Stage

Three-time stage winner Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) retained the pink jersey after an action-packed stage 17 of the Giro d’Italia

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 Giro d’Italia: Yates Retains Jersey on Sprint Stage

After a ferocious start that had countless attempts at a breakaway for the first 100km, the stage finished in a bunch sprint in pouring conditions in Iseo.

No matter the composition of an attempted breakaway, it seemed to be chased down by someone. The resistant peloton made for an extremely difficult start and it took until the final 50km of the stage for a break of four to be finally given an advantage of over one-minute.

With a small move, including Alessandro De Marchi (BMC Racing), Ben Hermans (Israel Cycling Academy), Wout Poels (Team Sky) and Luis Leon Sánchez (Astana Pro Team), at the front and less than 50km to go, the sprint teams saw another opportunity ahead of Rome. Bora-Hansgrohe and LottoNL-Jumbo put riders on the front and kept the quartet within striking distance. The race was back together with just over 10 kilometres remaining, and despite late escape attempts it resulted in a bunch sprint won by Elia Viviani (Quickstep Floors).

Simon Yates – Race Leader: “I was hoping for an easy day but there’s no easy days at this Giro, everyday has been difficult until now. Today was very fast day and a bit spicy with the rain in the final. I knew there was some splits but I didn’t know who was behind. The race was very fast, in the climbs and on the descents, so I’m not surprised there were some splits but it all came back together in the end.”

Giro d’Italia – Stage 17 results:
1. Elia Viviani (Quickstep Floors) 3:19:57
2. Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) ST
3. Niccolo Bonifazio (Bahrain-Merida) ST
28. Simon Yates (Mitchelton-SCOTT) ST

Giro d’Italia – General Classification after Stage 17:
1. Simon Yates (Mitchelton-SCOTT) 69:59:11
2. Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) +0:56
3. Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain-Merida) +3:11

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