Stage 17 of the Giro d’Italia brought with it the third summit finish in a row and with it another time gain for the maglia rosa Tadej Pogačar. Behind him, the battle over the remainder of the top 10, including the fight for the podium over seven minutes back, has, if not raged, then simmered.
In what has turned into a duel for second overall, Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) briefly held the lead following the Garda time trial, holding firm alongside Dani Martínez (Bora-Hansgrohe) in Livigno before ceding the place and 37 seconds on Monte Pana.
A day later, there was once again little to separate the two former teammates as they crossed the line atop the Passo Brocon level on time in fourth and fifth to head into Thursday’s brief respite from the mountains in Padova still with 22 seconds separating them.
Speaking after the finish, Thomas said that his team, who set the pace heading into the final climb of the day and for the majority of its 11.8km, had done a good job to set up a potential assault on second place, even if he didn’t have the legs to make a finishing move.
“We tried to set a good pace at the bottom and tried to set up to try and attack,” Thomas said. “But I didn’t quite have the legs to really go. I just seemed to be on a par with Dani really and a few of the other boys. But it was a good day from the team, and everyone rode really well.
“It’s how we’ve been riding the whole race, really. It’s just a shame that Pogačar is as good as he is.”
Instead, it was Martínez who made the first move from the select GC group, two minutes down the mountain from breakaway stage winner Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-EasyPost).
The attack, 2.4km from the end of the 155km stage, saw Pogačar and Thomas react quickly to stay on his wheel, while white jersey Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious), Einer Rubio (Movistar), and Romain Bardet (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) also held on.
Thomas said later that he was happy to see Martínez attack, noting that he would’ve hoped to counter and push on ahead. It wasn’t to be, however; instead, it was Pogačar who rode away once more while the best of the rest were locked in a stalemate.
“I was kind of happy for it – to try and go over the top,” Thomas said of Martínez’s move. “But I didn’t have the legs to do that. I would’ve liked to have tried to go with Pogačar, but I was already starting to feel the legs.
“It’s the story of the race really. Let him go ahead and then race behind.”
The stage marked the third day in a row where a rider from the breakaway – following on from Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and Giulio Pellizzari (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè) – rode into the final kilometres as the GC action kicked off behind, again with Pogačar leading.
However, this time Steinhauser could pull off what the others couldn’t to enjoy a stage win, his first as a professional. He had been part of the early break, too, a move which was caught after DSM-Firmenich PostNL put on the pace mid-stage.
Thomas said that Pogačar’s UAE Team Emirates squad “weren’t too bothered” about snaffling yet another win, though, leading to something of a lull in the proceedings which ended up letting the winning move go clear 60km from the finish.
“You could tell that UAE weren’t too bothered about the stage, for once,” he said, briefly summarising the day.
“They let a nice break go and then DSM rode a real solid tempo over the top of one of the climbs and then down they went super-fast. The bunch was splitting, and it was chaos behind. They brought the group back and then it was kind of starting again. So we just let some riders go, really.”