Colombian Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain) won the 17th stage of the Giro alone, which ended in Lavarone.
Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz (Ineos) retained the overall leader’s pink jersey, four days from the finish in Verona.
Richard Carapaz attacked in the final hectometres. He did not manage to let go of his runner-up in the general standings, the Australian Jai Hindley, whose delay is therefore still three seconds. On the other hand, he distanced himself by more than a minute from the Portuguese Joao Almeida, who gave up 3rd place overall to the Spaniard Mikel Landa.
Santiago Buitrago, a young 22-year-old runner, for his part beat the Dutchman Gijs Leemreize, also born in 1999, by around thirty seconds. The Czech Jan Hirt, winner the day before in Aprica, took third place, more than two minutes.
MVDP cracks in the end
In this 168 km mountain stage, Mathieu van der Poel has long rivaled the climbers. He tackled the last climb, the Menador, in the lead, along with Leemreize with more than a minute ahead of other members of the breakaway formed at the start of the stage.
The double winner of the Tour of Flanders, who had emerged with his compatriot in the previous descent, distanced Leemreize in the first hectometres of the Menador before paying for his efforts in this difficult ascent (7.9 km at 9.9%) . Approaching the summit, at 1261 meters above sea level, Leemreize was overtaken by Buitrago who then headed towards the finish 8 kilometers away.
The rider from Bogota, who crashed during the stage, signed the second success of his career after winning the mountain stage of the Saudi Tour in February. It is the first of a Colombian rider in this Giro.
Abandon by Simon Yates
This stage was also marked by the abandonment of Simon Yates. Winner of two stages on this Giro (the clm of Budapest on the second day of racing and the 14th stage on Saturday in Turin), the Briton suffers from a knee, announced his BikeExchange team. He was 21st overall, having lost a lot of time at the Blockhaus five days after falling in the Etna stage.
/ATS