Alberto Dainese of Team DSM took a photo finish sprint over Jonathan Milan and Michael Matthews to win Stage 17 of the 2023 Giro d’Italia.
Stage 17, running 197km from Pergine Valsugana to Caorle features just 600m of climbing, and is basically an easy downhill that will favor the sprinters. What’s more, it will give the GC contenders an active recovery day after yesterday’s climbing. The last 32km follow the coastline northeast all the way to Caorle – a seaside town often referred to as ‘Little Venice’ – where the finish awaits.
While the route favors the sprinters, the last past of the stage will favor care over boldness. At 3.5km to go, the riders will leave a main road, fly through a roundabout and pick up a narrower road that’ll lead them into the centre of town. A series of four tight corners then follow: the first at 2km to go, the second at 1.8km to go, the third at 1.3km to go and the fourth at 600m to go. These corners will make positioning crucial in the last few kilometres. Anyone who wants to win the stage will need to be in the first five to ten wheels going through the fourth and final corner.
Picking up the live coverage, the race has been lead by a breakaway quartet of Senne Leysen (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Thomas Champion (Cofidis), Diego Pablo Sevilla (Eolo-Kometa) e Charlie Quarterman (Team Corratec-Selle Italia). Their lead never went much north of 3 minutes and with about 60km to go, was just under 2 minutes.
The peloton is being pulled by the teams you would expect: Astana Qazaqstan for Cavendish, Movistar for Fernando Gaviria, Bahrain Victorious for Jonathan Milan, Team DSM for Alberto Dainese and UAE Team Emirates for Pascal Ackermann.
35km remaining and the leaders have just over a minute lead.
With just under 20km, Thomas Champion had already returned to the peloton, Sevilla & Quarterman were in no-man’s land, while Senne Lysen held a tentative lead of just under a minute.
Sickness and attrition have willowed the sprint teams of many of the fast men, but they were still massing at the front of the peloton.
10km to go and Leysen’s gap was down under 20 seconds.
Leysen was riding his heart out, but with 6km to go, the catch was eminent. The Movistar train was grouping on the left side of the peloton and Groupama-FDJ on the right. But the maglia rosa was at the front too!
And with 5km to go, the catch.
The peloton and the sprints teams somehow made it safely through the final turns and the sprint came down to Dainese, Milan and Matthews. Maglia rosa Geraint Thomas finished mere seconds behind.
Speaking in the press conference, the stage winner Alberto Dainese said: “It never happened to me to win by this little advantage. I’ve lost that way before. Even once as a junior I lost for raising my hands up in the air. I remained tense till I was told that I had won. Maybe it’s nicer to win this way. We took the lead with 2km to go I think. Marius Mayrhofer did an enormous work. I took the lead a bit too early and the Jayco-AlUla team passed me twice as quick as I was so my real sprint was more to close that gap on them than sprint for the win. Until yesterday, I didn’t think I could win a stage of the Giro this year. I got relegated on the first day I sprinted for myself [on stage 5]. I even managed to fell sick on the rest day but I slept well last night and I was feeling good for the first time today.”
The Maglia Rosa Geraint Thomas said: “It’s been one of the most straight forwards days in this Giro with just about ten minutes of rain. The finale was chaos. It was pretty dodgy out there, I’m happy the boys worked it out well. The main thing was to save the legs as much as possible for the next three days. Both Primoz Roglic and Joao Almeida are very dangerous. Joao is a bit closer. Both are super strong TT riders, I’m afraid of both to be honest. Friday seems like the queen stage. From the experience I have, I’ve got the confidence and the belief that I can win. I know how to not get carried away.”
2023 Giro d’Italia – Stage 17 Brief Results
- Alberto Dainese (Team DSM) in 4h26’08”
- Jonathan Milan (Bahrain Victorious) s.t.
- Michael Matthews (Jayco AlUla) s.t.
- Niccolò Bonifazio (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) s.t.
- Simone Consonni (Cofidis) s.t.
- Fernando Gaviria (Movistar) s.t.
- Andrea Pasqualon (Bahrain Victorious) s.t.
- Alex Kirsch (Trek-Segafredo) s.t.
- Stefano Oldani (Alpecin-Deceuninck) s.t.
- Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates)
General Classification After Stage 17:
- Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers)
- João Pedro Gonçalves Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) at 18″
- Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) at 29″
Jerseys:
- Maglia Rosa, leader of the General Classification, sponsored by Enel – Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers)
- Maglia Ciclamino, leader of the Points Classification, sponsored by Agenzia ICE with the brand Madeinitaly.gov.it – Jon
athan Milan (Bahrain – Victorious) - Maglia Azzurra, leader of the Gran Premio della Montagna, sponsored by Banca Mediolanum – Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost)
- Maglia Bianca, Best Young Rider, sponsored by Intimissimi Uomo – João Pedro Gonçalves Almeida (UAE Team Emirates)
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