Giro d’Italia Stage 17 Race Report: Isaac Del Toro (UAE Emirates XRG) had a bad day on Tuesday and lost a little time, but on stage 17 he showed he was far from beaten in this Giro d’Italia. The Mexican won the stage by jumping away from his main challenger, Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), in the final kilometre. Romain Bardet (Team Picnic PostNL) was second and Carapaz third on the stage, but the Ecuadorian moved up to second overall, ahead of Simon Yates (Visma | Lease a Bike).
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Stage 17 finale
The seventeenth stage has the extremely tough Passo del Mortirolo (12.6km at 7.6%) on its route. From the start in San Michele all’Adige, the stage starts to climb almost immediately. Never really steep, but enough to cause some problems. After 54 kilometres is the start proper of climb of the Passo del Tonale (15.2km at 6%), this is the twelfth time it has been used in the Giro d’Italia.
Stage 17 profile
Map and Mortirolo
After a long descent, the riders hit the Passo del Mortirolo, the only Cat 1 climb of the day, but a very popular one over the years. The Mortirolo is 12.6 kilometres at 7.6%, but the steep finish has sections of up to 16%. After the descent, it is a hard road via Le Motte to Bormio.
Richard Carapaz was the strong-man on stage 16, what can he do today?
From the gun, there was a lot of interested riders wanting to be in the early break. Thymen Arensman was particularly active at the front. The INEOS Grenadiers’ rider made several attempts to get away, as did a lot of UAE Emirates-XRG riders, who had also had a hard day yesterday. Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Daniel Felipe Martinez (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) were also amongst the attackers.
Egan Bernal is looking more like his old self
No one managed to get away after 20 kilometres, so Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) was able to add some more points to his purple points jersey at the intermediate sprint. Right after the sprint, a large group was able to ride away, but it was the pink jersey, Isaac Del Toro (UAE Emirates-XRG), who pulled them back. He didn’t use any of his teammates, the Mexican closed the gap without any help. He looked strong and in control, but was a waste of energy that he should be keeping safe.
Isaac Del Toro and Mads Pedersen seem relaxed
Another hard day, this time with the Mortirolo
Next, it was a group of 39 riders who finally managed to escape the grip of the peloton. Brandon McNulty was the best placed rider, almost 8 minutes behind Del Toro, so there was no worry for the UAE Emirates-XRG men.
Marco Brenners and Dylan Van Baarle wanted to get the break going
There was some dangerous riders in the break: Romain Bardet (Picnic PostNL), Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), Daniel Felipe Martinez (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS Astana), Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek), Thymen Arensman (INEOS Grenadiers), Steven Kruijswijk, Bart Lemmen, Wilco Kelderman & Dylan van Baarle (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-EasyPost), all able to take a stage win.
Can the big break go all the way
On the Passo del Tonale, Fortunato, in the blue KOM jersey, started the action early, causing the leading group to split into several pieces. He took the maximum KOM points at the summit. The peloton rode on steadily, but on the Mortirolo it was slightly different. Without any major accelerations, the pace was high for a long time. That cost Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers) and Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious), sixth and eighth overall, to lose contact. Juan Ayuso had already been dropped.
Romain Bardet was one of the ‘engines’ of the break
Towards the top, Richard Carapaz put in an attack that no one could answer right away. The Ecuadorian had nearly 20 seconds and it looked like Del Toro was in trouble, but he managed to closed the gap to the other favourites. On the descent, Carapaz, even with the help of Steinhauser, saw it was too early for a solo ride to the finish in Bormio, so he sat up and waited for the other GC men.
The Mortirolo didn’t cause too many problems
In the break, Daniel Felipe Martinez looked to be the strongest, but it was Mattia Cattaneo, Afonso Eulalio (Bahrain Victorious), Florian Stork (Tudor), Bardet and Fortunato who were the best climbers. Due to the battle in the peloton, their gap had gone under 2 minutes. Q36.5 saw a chance for Tom Pidcock and started to chase hard.
Carapaz put in a big attack before the final climb, but it came to nothing
Going to the Le Motte climb, 8 kilometres from the finish, EF Education-EasyPost and UAE Emirates XRG started ride on the front, so what was left of the break only had 30 seconds at the start of the final Cat 3 climb. Their chance of a stage win was looking slim, so Romain Bardet attacked his fellow escapees with 1.5 kilometres to the summit. Could this be a stage win in his last Grand Tour?
Bardet went solo looking for a stage win
Behind the Frenchman, the pink jersey, Isaac Del Toro, jumped away with a big attack. Only Carapaz could grab his rear wheel. The two rode well together and closed down Bardet. This was an ideal situation for the overall leader, but Del Toro wanted more than just time on the other GC riders, he was determined to win the stage. On the descent to the finish he rode the others off his wheel and hold of the others for the stage win.
Isaac Del Toro looked calm in the finale
The differences on the overall standings are still quite close at the end of the stage. With his small lead and bonus seconds Del Toro now has a lead of 41 seconds on Carapaz and 51 on Simon Yates, but there are still three hard stages before the final procession stage in Rome on Sunday.
Del Toro takes the stage in the pink
Overall leader and stage winner Isaac Del Toro (UAE Emirates XRG): “I imagined that I could win a stage with the Maglia Rosa. The Giro has been very good so far. The fight for the podium is incredible. Today I realised that I will never give up. I will always try to win. I have nothing to lose. It wasn’t any easier today than yesterday. With the team, we expected some attacks to take place on the Mortirolo. We didn’t want to let all the GC riders go. I went across to them and I took it easy a bit. I caught them in the descent. We had made this plan with the team that I would attack on the last small climb.”
Can Del Toro hold on till Sunday?
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Giro d’Italia Stage 17 Result:
1. Isaac Del Toro Romero (Mex) UAE Emirates XRG in 3:58:48
2. Romain Bardet (Fra) Team Picnic PostNL at 0:04
3. Richard Carapaz (Ecu) EF Education-EasyPost
4. Simon Yates (GB) Visma | Lease a Bike at 0:15
5. Giulio Pellizzari (Ita) Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe at 0:16
6. Derek Gee (Can) Israel-Premier Tech
7. Damiano Caruso (Ita) Bahrain Victorious
8. Einer Rubio Reyes (Col) Movistar
9. Max Poole (GB) Team Picnic PostNL
10. Afonso Eulalio (Por) Bahrain Victorious at 0:56.
Giro d’Italia Overall After Stage 17:
1. Isaac Del Toro Romero (Mex) UAE Emirates XRG in 65:30:34
2. Richard Carapaz (Ecu) EF Education-EasyPost at 0:41
3. Simon Yates (GB) Visma | Lease a Bike at 0:51
4. Derek Gee (Can) Israel-Premier Tech at 1:57
5. Damiano Caruso (Ita) Bahrain Victorious at 3:06
6. Egan Arley Bernal Gomez (Col) Grenadiers at 4:43
7. Giulio Pellizzari (Ita) Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe at 5:02
8. Einer Rubio Reyes (Col) Movistar at 6:09
9. Adam Yates (GB) UAE Emirates XRG at 7:45
10. Michael Storer (Aus) Tudor at 7:46.
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