Giro d'Italia: Kluge wins stage 17 for IAM Cycling

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It was meant to be a day for the sprinters but Roger Kluge (IAM Cycling) upset the apple cart with victory on stage 17 of the Giro d'Italia. Kluge joined a late attack from Filippo Pozzato (Wilier Triestina-Southeast) before soloing clear.

Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo) won the sprint in the bunch for second place with Nikias Arndt (Giant-Alpecin) taking third. Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) finished safely within the bunch to retain his race lead.

After catching a break of six riders with just over two kilometres to go, the sprinters teams had been lining themselves up for a bunch gallop to the line. Pozatto had other ideas though and the Italian jumped clear as the race passed through the flamme rouge. It appeared that the veteran rider and former Giro d'Italia stage winner had pulled one over on the peloton as he went into the last hundred metres.

Kluge, who is targeting a medal in the omnium in Rio, used all his sprint knowledge from the track to time his run to perfection. The big German rounded Pozzato and had time to take a few more metres on him for his first ever Grand Tour stage win. Just two days after the announcement that his IAM Cycling team are set to close at the end of the season, it will be a huge boost to Kluge.

Watch stage 17 video highlights

How it happened

After a relentless day of racing to kick off the final week, the peloton was gifted with a much less challenging day. The 198 kilometres from Molveno to Casano d'Adda featured just one categorised climb and the few sprinters remaining in the race were on the hunt for their first stage victory. They were treated to a beautiful day of sunshine as they rode by the lake in Molveno.

There were attacks right from the off, and with the peloton more than happy to let them go Daniel Oss (BMC), Eugert Zhupa (Wilier Triestina-Southeast) and Pavel Brutt (Tinkoff) formed the day's breakaway soon after the flag dropped. All three have been regular attendees in the school of escapees over the past two weeks.

Trek-Segafredo and Lampre-Merida took up the responsibilities at the head of the peloton, allowing the team of the race leader Kruijswijk take a break ahead of the tougher stages later in the week. They gave the three intrepid escapees plenty of room to manoeuvre, allowing them to take as much as six minutes advantage.

The race always appeared under control by these two sprinters' teams, with Dimension Data also pitching in with a view to helping Kristian Sbaragli to a stage win. By the time that the trio hit the only ascent of the day, they had just 3:30 on the peloton. Such was the calm in the peloton, Roberto Ferrari (Lampre-Merida) had time to swing out of the bunch and high five a few fans along the road, while Alexander Porsev (Katusha) stopped to say high to some members of his fan club.

Oss lead the escapees over the top of the climb but there was little competition for that honour. He seemed a bit more eager when they got to the first of the intermediate sprints with the red jersey still a slim possibility for the Italian. He took out the first with relative ease, but faced a challenge from Zhupa at the second but still managed top honours. Behind, Nizzolo added a few more points to his tally while Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) saved his efforts for the finish line.

As the gap to the escapees dipped under the minute mark, in the final 30 kilometres, three riders decided to strike out and join the leaders. Lars Bak (Lotto-Soudal), Ignatas Konovalovas (FDJ) and Maxim Belkov (Katusha) doubled the size of the breakaway group and managed to slow the pace of the catch. The break was, ultimately, doomed and the six men were brought back with little more than two kilometres to go.

It seemed that would be it and the sprint was inevitable but Pozzato was otherwise inclined and attacked with a kilometre remaining. The line agonisingly close, the Wilier Triestina-Southeast rider was passed by Kluge en-route to his first Grand Tour stage victory.

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