The 17th stage took place on a completely flat race route, with a short but steep climb in the last 30 kilometers. It's difficult to say anything else about this stage than that it was annoying, until Giovanni Visconti accellerated just at the right moment in this climb, which allowed him to win this stage in a solo win. Solo win which surprises the sprinters who must be disappointed to not have been able to battle for victory in this stage ...
The summary of the 17th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2013: Caravaggio > Vicenza
With Hayden Roulston (Radioshack-Leopard) not starting this afternoon in Caravaggio and after the different abandons in yesterday's stage, 172 riders came to the start of this 17th stage towards Vicenza.
As soon as the flag went down for the start, Miguel Rubiano (Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela), Maxim Belkov (Katusha), Gert Dockx (Lotto-Belisol) and Luke Durbridge (Orica-GreenEDGE) decided to go off. Easy to say that they didn't represent any danger for the general classification because the best placed rider among this group, Rubiano, was at over one hour behind the pink jersey, Vincenzo Nibali (Astana).
After 25 kilometers in the race their gap already reached its maximum at 4'40". From there, the peloton seemed to play a bit with the breakaway because the gap stays for a long time around 3 minutes before going further down to 2'10". At 80 kilometers from the finish, the gap is however back up to a new maximum at 4'52" before going back down.
At about 30 kilometers from the finish, Maxime Belkov got what he wanted, winning the two intermediate sprints, and he thus sits up and is taken back by the peloton which is then at only 1 minute behind the leading group.
The remaining trio then starts the short but steep climb and Miguel Rubiano takes the opportunity to attack. Luke Durbridge, mostly a time trial specialist, and Gert Dockx get in difficulties and are taken back by the peloton while Rubiano gets company from Danilo di Luca (Vini Fantini-Selle Italia) and a bit later also from Giovanni Visconti (Movistar Team) who rapidly decides to attack.
The rider of the Movistar team goes off solo to the finish while Rubiano is taken back by the peloton. In the last kilometers we see several counter attacks but all remain unsuccessful. Giovanni Visconti thus takes his second victory in this Giro d'Italia 2013 after his victory on the Galibier on Sunday and after Beñat Intxausti's victory yesterday, it's the third victory in row for the Spanish team.
Video summary of the 17th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2013
Here's the video summary of the 17th stage of the Tour of Italy 2013:
The classifications after the 17th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2013
The stage classification for the 17th stage of the Tour of Italy 2013 - Caravaggio > Vicenza
In the points classification there were some more important movements: Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) still keeps the lead even though Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) now comes dangerously close and we see Mauro Santambrogio (Vini Fantini-Selle Italia) move back up to the 3rd position while Giovanni Visconti (Movistar Team) makes his entrance in the top 5 of this classification:
1/ Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) - 113 points
2/ Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) - 109 points
3/ Mauro Santambrogio (Vini Fantini-Selle Italia) - 89 points
4/ Giovanni Visconti (Movistar Team) - 86 points
5/ Carlos Betancur (AG2R La Mondiale - 85 points
King of the Mountains classification
No changes in the top 5 of the King of the Mountains classification:
1/ Carlos Betancur (AG2R La Mondiale) - 73h16'44"
2/ Rafal Majka (Team Saxo-Tinkoff) - +0'05"
3/ Wilco Kelderman (Blanco Pro Cycling Team) - +9'49"
4/ Darwin Atapuma (Colombia) - +16'19"
5/ Diego Rosa (Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela) - +30'00" by Thomas Vergouwen
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