Daring Romain Bardet fights to 2nd from break, Max Poole impresses with 9th out GC group

28th May – Stage 17: San Michele all’Adige – Bormio

At only 155 kilometres in length, Stage 17 at the Giro d’Italia looked ripe to be a day for the breakaway to battle it out for stage success. As a result, a huge fight took place in the opening hour or so of racing, with attack after attack. Team Picnic PostNL were represented in almost every move and when the elastic finally snapped it was Romain Bardet who made it into the large front group.

However, the peloton kept the break on a relatively right rope so going onto and over the climb of Passo del Tonale the gap held steady at around three minutes. Bardet rode strongly as the breakaway group thinned down, while back in the ever reducing Maglia Rosa peloton, Max Poole had Chris Hamilton and Gijs Leemreize around him as support.

Onto the famous Passo del Mortirolo, the gap was hovering at just over two minutes and the pace increased on both fronts. Towards the top Bardet made it into the selection of eight from the break, while behind the attacks started and Poole climbed brilliantly to follow the best from the GC group. The long valley afterwards saw a bit of a regrouping from the GC riders, and the stage win hung in the balance, but soon a few teams started to pace behind.

Heading onto the short last climb Bardet’s breakaway had their advantage cut to just over 20 seconds, but the ever determined and defiant Bardet dug deep and kicked on solo. Pushing hard on the pedals he crested the summit in the lead, but behind Del Toro and Carapaz attacked out of the GC group, making contact with Bardet in the last five kilometres. Catching his breath, Bardet sat on the back of the duo, but on the technical finale Del Toro kicked and managed to create a gap, going on to take the stage win while Bardet fought to a valiant second place on the day. Behind, Poole followed in the group of the other GC riders, taking ninth place on the stage and continuing the upward trajectory in the overall standings, as he and the team now sit in 11th place on GC.

At the finish Bardet reflected: “I had marked this stage from the very start of the Giro. Just yesterday, I looked at it again and I was really feeling good, so I had confidence. I think I rode well, but we never really got much of a gap. Even when I got caught, I still believed in it. I had studied the technical finale with all those corners really thoroughly. I knew that if I could enter the corner with 200 metres to go in first position, I would win. In the end, Del Toro did an amazing job. The road was getting slippery, and the line he chose was really impressive. He gained five metres there, and that was it. I have no regrets, I raced smart. I truly did everything I could, so there’s nothing to feel sorry about and I’m proud of how I’m riding in my final Grand Tour.”

Team Picnic PostNL coach Matt Winston added: “We can have no regrets today. We did everything we could to try and win the stage. We rode smart from the breakaway and in the end it was second on the day, but we can’t be anything but proud of how Romain rode. In the GC group we also did a really nice race with Max, the guys supported him and then he showed he still has good legs. We’ll keep pushing.”