What is it about riding for a lame duck cycling team that tends to inspire cyclists to feats of glory in Grand Tours? Today, that honor went to Roger Kluge of IAM Cycling, who won an all out sprint in Cassano d’Adda in the 17th stage of the 2016 Giro d’Italia.
Kluge’s IAM Cycling announced it would close down at the end of the season.
The German rider powered past Pippo Pozzato in a last-ditch attack and held off the peloton in an all-out sprint in the final km to finish ahead of Italy’s Giacomo Nizzolo on the 196km stage from Molveno to Cassano d’Adda.
Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo), one of the favourites to win the largely sprint-friendly stage, edged Germany’s Nikas Arndt (Giant-Alpecin) into third place.
Dutchman Steven Kruijswijk (Lotto NL-Jumbo) finished in the main pack and kept hold of the pink jersey while maintaining a three-minute advantage over his nearest challenger, Colombia’s Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEDGE), with four days left.
Klose is the third German to win a stage at this year’s Giro, after Andre Greipel and Marcel Kittel, although his team IAM Cycling announced on Monday that they would close down after this season as they had failed to find a co-sponsor. (From Reuters: Reporting by Simon Jennings in Bengaluru; editing by Ken Ferris)
Stage 17 Brief Results:
- Roger Kluge (Germany / IAM Cycling) 4:31:29″
- Giacomo Nizzolo (Italy / Trek) ST
- Nikias Arndt (Germany / Giant)
- Sacha Modolo (Italy / Lampre)
- Matteo Trentin (Italy / Etixx – Quick-Step)
- Alexander Porsev (Russia / Katusha)
- Pim Ligthart (Netherlands / Lotto)
- Ramunas Navardauskas (Lithuania / Cannondale)
- Manuel Belletti (Italy / Wilier Triestina)
- Paolo Simion (Italy / Bardiani Valvole)
General Classification After Stage 17:
- Steven Kruijswijk (Netherlands / LottoNL) 68:11:39″
- Esteban Chaves (Colombia / Orica) +3:00″
- Alejandro Valverde (Spain / Movistar) +3:23″
- Vincenzo Nibali (Italy / Astana) +4:43″
- Ilnur Zakarin (Russia / Katusha) +4:50″
- Rafal Majka (Poland / Tinkoff) +5:34″
- Bob Jungels (Luxembourg / Etixx – Quick-Step) +7:57″
- Andrey Amador (Costa Rica / Movistar) +8:53″
- Domenico Pozzovivo (Italy / AG2R) +10:05″
- Kanstantsin Siutsou (Belarus / Dimension Data) +11:03″