It was meant to be a day for the sprinters but Roger Kluge (IAM Cycling) upset the apple cart with victory on stage 17 of the Giro d’Italia. Kluge joined a late attack from Filippo Pozzato (Wilier Triestina-Southeast) before soloing clear.
Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo) won the sprint in the bunch for second place with Nikias Arndt (Giant-Alpecin) taking third. Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) finished safely within the bunch to retain his race lead.
After catching a break of six riders with just over two kilometres to go, the sprinters teams had been lining themselves up for a bunch gallop to the line. Pozatto had other ideas though and the Italian jumped clear as the race passed through the flamme rouge. It appeared that the veteran rider and former Giro d’Italia stage winner had pulled one over on the peloton as he went into the last hundred metres.
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Kluge, who is targeting a medal in the omnium in Rio, used all his sprint knowledge from the track to time his run to perfection. The big German rounded Pozatto and had time to take a few more metres on him for his first ever Grand Tour stage win. Just two days after the announcement that his IAM Cycling team are set to close at the end of the season, it will be a huge boost to Kluge.
Watch stage 17 video highlights
How it happened
After a relentless day of racing to kick off the final week, the peloton was gifted with a much less challenging day. The 198 kilometres from Molveno to Casano d’Adda featured just one categorised climb and the few sprinters remaining in the race were on the hunt for their first stage victory. They were treated to a beautiful day of sunshine as they rode by the lake in Molveno.
There were attacks right from the off, and with the peloton more than happy to let them go Daniel Oss (BMC), Eugert Zhupa (Wilier Triestina-Southeast) and Pavel Brutt (Tinkoff) formed the day’s breakaway soon after the flag dropped. All three have been regular attendees in the school of escapees over the past two weeks.
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