2016 Giro d’Italia Stage 17: Kluge ruins the sprinters’ day

Roger Kluge of IAM Cycling took a surprise win in Wednesday’s stage of the Giro d’Italia, upsetting the sprinters’ ambitions with a late attack. Kluge’s achievement makes it six German wins in the 99th Giro. The victory comes one day after IAM Cycling announced that the team was folding at the end of the season. Race leader Steven Kruijswijk (The Netherlands/LottoNL-Jumbo) finished safely in the peloton.

After a few frenetic days of GC battling, the parcours was more suited for a bunch sprint, with only a single Cat. 4 climb halfway through the route.

A day for the break? Or the sprinters? Here's stage 17 of the @giroditalia.

P/b @PolarGlobal #ridewithconfidence pic.twitter.com/uUHetH5Kob

— peloton® (@pelotonmagazine) May 25, 2016

Surprisingly small for such a late stage, the day’s breakaway consisted of three men who had already been in escapes during the Giro. Pavel Brutt (Russia/Tinkoff), Daniel Oss (Italy/BMC) and Eugert Zhupa (Albania/Wilier-Southeast) rolled up a 5:30 gap before Lampre and Trek-Segafredo began to manage it. For the first few hours it was “chill”.

Oss topped the climb first and took both intermediate sprints as well.

On Wednesday Trek’s Giacomo Nizzolo wore the red points jersey without having taken a stage, having inherited the competition lead from Andre Greipel when the Rostock Gorilla went home. Last year, Nizzolo also won the red kit without taking a victory, so he really wanted to claim the day’s flowers.

After the final intermediate sprint a trio lit out from the peloton in pursuit of its counterpoint in the break. Making the junction with 25-km to go, the new sextet worked well together and pulled out more of gap.

On the way to the finish town to Cassano D’adda, the race passed through Treviglio, where the Bianchi factory is located. The gap was only 17-seconds at that point.

The inevitable capture came with 1.2-km to go. Filippo Pozzato (Italy/Wilier-Southeast) attacked, drawing Kluge who rounded the Italian in the final 200-metres and hung on for the victory. Nizzolo was runner-up.

Thursday’s stage has a single categorized climb as well, a Cat. 2 that crests 20-km from the finish in Pinerolo. It’s the longest stage of the 2016 edition at 244-km.

2016 Giro d’Italia Stage 17
1) Roger Kluge (Germany/IAM Cycling) 4:31:29
2) Giacomo Nizzolo (Italy/Trek) s.t.
3) Niklas Arndt (Germany/Giant-Alpecin) s.t.
97) Svein Tuft (Canada/Orica-GreenEdge) +0:50
148) Hugo Houle (Canada/AG2R) +2:45

2016 Giro d’Italia GC
1) Steven Kruijswijk (The Netherlands/LottoNL-Jumbo) 68:11:39
2) Esteban Chaves (Colombia/Orica-GreenEdge) +3:00
3) Alejandro Valverde (Spain/Movistar) +3:23
82) Hugo Houle (Canada/AG2R) +2:27:46
149) Svein Tuft (Canada/Orica-GreenEdge) +3:22:46