Georg Steinhauser solos to Giro d'Italia Stage 17 win

Germany’s Georg Steinhauser halted race leader Tadej Pogacar’s streak of stage wins with a solo victory after a day of incessant climbing on Wednesday

Two time Tour de France winner and two-time runner up Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia pulled father away from the field in the Giro d'Italia by coming second in the 17th stage, a 159km high mountain run from Selva di Val Gardena to Passo del Brocon.

The Slovenian 'cannibal' has said his lead is big enough for him to save some energy ahead of his Tour bid.

Steinhauser (EF Education — EasyPost) went alone from a breakaway group on the first climb of the Passo Brocon with just over 30km of the 159km 17th stage remaining and continued to open up a sizeable gap over pursuer Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier.

Pogacar had won the 15th stage and Tuesday’s chaotic 16th stage to open up a huge gap in the battle for the Maglia Rosa, but resisted the urge to make it a hat-trick.

The UAE Team Emirates rider accelerated away from the main group in the final kilometres to put more distance between himself and his supposed general classification rivals.

Pogacar finished 1min 24sec behind Steinhauser to push his overall lead towards 8min.

“Well I really held my horses until the final so it was a really beautiful stage,” Pogacar, who has dominated the race almost from the start, said.

“A little bit cold on the last descent but we stretched the legs good on the final climb.”

He leads Colombia’s Dani Martinez (Bora-Hansgrohe) by 07:42 with Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) 08:04 back.

Pogacar said Saturday’s penultimate stage could be his chance to rack up a sixth stage win.

“The main goal is always to keep the jersey into Rome and not do anything stupid. But there is one really nice stage, Monte Grappa close to Slovenia, we can see what happens there,” the Slovenian rider said.

For Steinhauser it was his biggest senior win. Jan Ullrich sent his congrats to Giro stage winner Georg Steinhauser. Georg is nephew of Jan.

“To be honest, I didn’t really think about much, I just concentrated on the roads in front of me,” he said.

“The roads were super wet and slippery so I was just in my zone. I heard on the radio and I was super nervous in the last climb and I heard at one point that he [Pogacar] was attacking but I was already 2km to go so I thought I will make it.”

Pogacar, 25, who won the 2020 and 2021 Tours and came second the next two years to Dane Jonas Vingegaard, and who is aiming to become the first rider to do the Giro-Tour double since the late Marco Pantani in 1998.

Thursday’s 178km run to Padua takes the peloton out of the mountains and will be a day for the sprinters.

2024 Giro d'Italia Stage 17 Top 10

1  STEINHAUSER Georg EF Education - EasyPost 4:28:51
2  POGACAR Tadej UAE Team Emirates 1:24
3  TIBERI Antonio Bahrain - Victorious 1:42
4  THOMAS Geraint INEOS Grenadiers 1:42
5  MARTÍNEZ Daniel Felipe BORA - hansgrohe 1:42
6  RUBIO Einer Movistar Team 1:42
7  BARDET Romain Team dsm-firmenich PostNL 1:42
8  ARENSMAN Thymen INEOS Grenadiers 1:55
9  HIRT Jan Soudal Quick-Step 1:55
10  MAJKA Rafal UAE Team Emirates 1:55

2024 Giro d'Italia GC after Stage 17

1 -  POGACAR Tadej UAD 63:31:18 
2 -  MARTÍNEZ Daniel Felipe BOH 7:42 
3 -  THOMAS Geraint IGD 8:04 
4 -  O'CONNOR Ben DAT 9:47 
5 -  TIBERI Antonio TBV 10:29 
6 -  ARENSMAN Thymen IGD 11:10 
7 -  BARDET Romain DFP 12:42 
8 - RUBIO Einer MOV 13:33 
9 - ZANA Filippo JAY 13:52 
10 -  HIRT Jan SOQ 14:44