Conti rides his way into a top 10 finish during stage 17

UAE Team Emirates’ Valerio Conti showed his class with another strong performance in stage 17 of the Giro d’Italia and was rewarded with a top ten spot, finishing 2’08” behind the stage winner Nans Peter (AG2r La Mondiale).
Team mate Jan Polanc dropped down a single place in the General Classification and currently sits in 11th, 9’20” behind the race leader Richard Carapaz (Movistar) with three stages left of this year’s Giro to go.

It was another thrilling day in the mountains as the peloton rode the 181km route from Commezzadura to a summit finish at Anterselva, 1635m above sea level. Even after two and half weeks of riding, the pace was high at the front of the race, splintering the bunch as it tried to keep the early breakaway on a manageable leash over two classified climbs and the 5,5 km uphill finale, which decided both the race and shook up the GC standings.

With 8kms to go Conti popped off the front of his breakaway group as they tried to close the gap on the solo rider, Nans Peter, who was holding a solid minute over those behind. His move animated race and forced more of the GC contenders to follow – who then began to attack each other time and time again. The pace was too intense for Conti who slipped back and came in behind the leaders with just over a two minute deficit on the winner.

Commenting the stage, Conti (photo Bettini) said: “I was aiming to get a good result for the team. Unfortunately I’ve been suffering with physical problems for the last few days which hampered my pedalling a bit, so despite the effort I couldn’t take the win. It was a big fight for the breakaway but I made it. The final climb was extremely selective and everyone is really tired now.”

Tomorrow the team will tackle a mammoth 222km route from Valdaora to Santa Maria di Sala, but have some respite from the climbing with only one category 4 ramp along the way.

Stage 17 Results
1 Nans Peter (Fra) AGR2 La Mondiale 4:41:34”
2 Estaban Chaves (Col) Mitchelton Scott +1:34”
3 Davide Formolo (Ita) BORA Hansgrohe +1:51”
4 Valerio Conti (Ita) UAE Team Emirates +2:08”

General Classification after stage 17
1 Richard Carapaz (Ecu) Movistar 74:48:18”
2 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Bahrain Merida +1:54”
3 Primoz Roglic (Slo) Jumbo Visma +2:16”
7 Jan Polanc (Slo) UAE Team Emirates +9:20”

Stage 2 of the Tour of Norway (Kvinesdal-Mandal, 174 km) once again ended in a mass sprint finish, though Alexander Kristoff was unable to build on his 3rd place on yesterday’s stage and had to settle for 4th.

Before the final the peloton had to bridge a gap to a breakaway of seven riders which held a lead up until the flamme rouge. Though the gap was never more the 3’30 the group fought on before being swept up by the bunch. In the dash for the line, Kristoff came home in 4th place behind stage winner Alvaro Hodeg (Deceuninck-Quick Step).

In the GC the Norwegian strongman moves to 6th place at 6” to leader Cees Bol (Team Sunweb).

Stage 2 results
1 Alvaro Hodeg (Col) Deceuninck-Quick Step 4h09’18”
2 Kristoffer Halvorsen (Nor) Team Ineos s.t.
3 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Dimension Data s.t.
4 Aleksander Kristoff (Nor) UAE Team Emirates s.t.

General classification after stage 2
1 Cees Bol (Ned) Sunweb 8h04’20”
2 Alvaro Hodeg (Col) Deceuninck-Quick Step s.t.
3 Kristoffer Halvorsen (Nor) Team Ineos 4″
6 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) UAE Team Emirates 6″