Home > News

100th Giro d’Italia Stage 17: Woods ninth, teammate Rolland first French winner since 2014

Stage 4 winner Jan Polanc benefits from a quiet day for GC favourites

May 24, 2017
Share on SMS

Pierre Rolland took his first win in two years on Wednesday’s stage of the Giro d’Italia. Rolland won with a late attack from a large breakaway that including teammate Michael Woods. It was the first French victory in the Giro since Nacer Bouhanni in 2014. The top-10 of the GC had–until they realized a rider in the break could take the race lead–a mild day of racing. Tom Dumoulin stayed in pink.


After the craziness of Stage 16, Stage 17 looked to be mellower, with two early Cat. 2’s and a Cat. 3 just past the midway point that led to a very long uphill drag to the finish.


In a follow-up to Tuesday’s queen stage, it was determined that Lars Bak of Lotto-Soudal was the heaviest rider to top the Stelvio. Therefore, he was awarded 100 bottles of Kwaremont beer.

A Trio of Fugitives Becomes a Mob

Immediately a trio of escapees took off: Pavel Brutt, Matej Mohoric and Rolland. Rolland took the maximum KOM points at the top of Cat. 2 Aprica. Woods was part of a quartet that attempted to bridge over on the descent of Aprica, but like Tejay Van Garderen’s earlier bridge move, it was shut down.


Woods was also part of an enormous bridging move on the next Cat. 2, the Passo Del Tonale. Again, Rolland nabbed the maximum KOM points, with the peloton now 9:00 back. The big group moved closer to the trio, which became a duo and then just Mohoric when Brutt bonked in spectacular fashion.

By the time Mohoric crested Cat. 3 Giovo with 80-kms of gradual grade climbing to go, a splinter of that large raft of chasers was 5:00 behind the UAE-Emirates’ Slovenian, while the pink jersey peloton was a whopping 13:00 behind the lone leader.



The Polanc Situation

Soon, Sunweb came to realize that Mohoric’s teammate and compatriot Jan Polanc was the virtual pink jersey on the road, the 13th place Stage 4 winner having snuck into the large chase. Fifteenth place Maxime Monfort of Lotto-Soudal was also a fugitive of some concern.

With 60-km to go Mohoric found company in Rolland, Van Garderen, Rui Costa and six others. The peloton finally started to turn it on, with Quick Step–looking to protect Bob Jungels’ white jersey from Polanc–taking the reins at first. The UAE fellows in the escape drove to keep Polanc high in the GC. Woods and others rejoined the break to make it a platoon of 25.

With 28-km remaining, the gap was 9:45. Perhaps most of the top-10 riders would protect their spots, but the win would be contested by the big breakaway. Just after Mohoric sat up and looked almost as stricken as Brutt did earlier, the attacks started among the fugitives. Yet another UAE character, Valerio Conti, dashed away with 15-km to go.

La Victoire

Conti drew seven riders with him, including Woods. The situation was fluid. After a regrouping Rolland bolted.


There was no stopping the Frenchman, who started the day one spot ahead of Woods in the GC. Rolland’s triumph is his first Grand Tour win since the 2012 Tour de France. Woods came ninth, finishing with the chase gang 24-seconds behind. Woods jumps up to 34th, Rolland to 33rd.


Polanc is now 10th, bumping out Adam Yates, who just re-entered the top-10 on Tuesday.

Thursday features five climbs over 137-km, including a summit finish on Cat. 1 Ortisei/St. Urlich.

2017 Giro d’Italia Stage 17
1) Pierre Rolland (France/Cannondale) 5:42:56
2) Rui Costa (Portugal/UAE-Emirates) +0:24
3) Gorka Izagirre (Spain/Movistar) s.t.
9) Michael Woods (Canada/Cannondale) s.t.

2017 Giro d’Italia GC
1) Tom Dumoulin (The Netherlands/Sunweb) 76:05:38
2) Nairo Quintana (Colombia/Movistar) +0:31
3) Vincenzo Nibali (Italy/Bahrain-Merida) +1:12
34) Michael Woods (Canada/Cannondale) +55:58

Categories: News |