Giro d'Italia 2025 Stage 17

May 28, 2025 The stage today is 50KM shorter than yesterday but it still packs a punch with 3,800M of climbing. The route follows a long dragging valley road following along the Noce River leads up to Lago di Santa Giustina before making a turn West into the Val Di Sole to take on the first climb of the Passo Del Tonale. After 15KM of climbing and 24KM of descending the Tonale, the riders drop into Monno to start the Passo Del Mortirolo, almost 13KM long at 7.5% with 48KM to the finish from the top. The Redbull Golden Kilometer is in the village of Le Prese with 25KM to go. The final obstacle is the 3KM climb of Le Motte. It has an average grade of 8% and could be a good launchpad for a rider to break free with just 9KM to go before the finish in Bormio. Racing got underway through the vineyards of San Michele all’Adige. The first 20KM was full on with groups splitting in front and behind the main peloton. No break had gone as they entered Cles, home of Maurizio Fondriest, for the Intermediate Sprint. Lidl-Trek started to control and set up the lead out for Mads Pedersen who took the sprint and added to his enormous lead in the Ciclamino Sprint Classification. The attacking continued at an infernal rate but through Croviana, a large group of around 40 riders split off and the peloton slowed down. The gap got out to 3 minutes 30 seconds but Polti-VisitMalta somehow missed the move and were forced to sit on the front of the bunch and set up a chase. Lorenzo Fortunato of XDS-Astana pushed the pace on the Passo Del Tonale and split the break into pieces. Fortunato could not get away however and the pace slowed to a more managed effort which allowed the group to swell. By the top, about 25 riders were in the front with a 3 minute gap back to the Polti-VisitMalta led peloton. The gap continued to go out and by the start of the Mortirolo, they had 4 minutes advantage on the peloton. UAE-XRG took control in the peloton on the Mortirolo and the first GC casualty was Antonio Tiberi of Bahrain Victorious who started the day in 8th place overall. Ineos took over with 8.5KM to climb and continued to whittle the group down. The gap came down to 2 minutes 45 seconds forcing the break to respond. Fortunato kicked it off but Dani Martinez of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe put in an attack that created a good gap. Chris Harper of Jayco AlUla came across then Georg Steinhauser of EF-Education EasyPost and then the entire group came back together. The last 2KM of the Mortirolo were incredibly steep. Giovanni Aleotti of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe dropped back from the break and gave a strong turn for Giulio Pellizzari. When Aleotti pulled off, Pellizzari lifted the pace and caused cracks down the group of favorites. Alex Cepeda took over for EF-Education EasyPost and with a little over 1KM to the top, Richard Carapaz attacked. Isaac del Toro of UAE-XRG and Simon Yates of Visma-Lease a Bike, sitting first and second in GC, could not follow and Carapaz drifted away up the road. By the top, Carapaz was 10 seconds ahead of the rest of the favorites who were chasing the Ecuadorian. At the bottom of the steep, narrow descent with 33KM to go, Afonso Eulálio of Bahrain Victorious, Mattia Cattaneo of Soudal Quickstep, Romain Bardet of Picnic-PostNL, Florian Stork of Tudor Pro Cycling and Fortunato were 2 minutes 30 seconds ahead of Carapaz with the favorites group still at 20 seconds and being led by a number of UAE-XRG riders. With 27.5KM to go, the groups were consolidating. The Carapaz group was caught and the GC favorites were back together with the exception of Michael Storer of Tudor Pro Cycling who had been dropped near the top of the Mortirolo. At the front of the race, Dani Martinez, Mathias Vacek of Lidl-Trek, and Wilco Kelderman of Visma-Lease a Bike joined up to make eight at the front. Damien Howson of Q36.5 started riding in the GC group and brought the gap down to 40 seconds through Valdisotto near the bottom of the final climb of Le Motte with 14KM to go. Bardet attacked from the remnants of the break halfway up, but by the top, his gap was just 15 seconds because behind, del Toro put in a searing attack that only Carapaz could follow. It was disappointment for Bardet who was caught with 5.5KM to go by Carapaz and del Toro. He latched on and sat at the back to try and recover as much as possible for the sprint. A group of chasers formed with Simon Yates, Damiano Caruso of Bahrain Victorious, Derek Gee of Israel-Premier Tech, Einer Rubio of Movistar, Max Poole of Picnic-PostNL, and Pellizzari who were just 10 seconds behind with 2KM to go. The final kilometer had at least 7 turns and with 1300M to go, del Toro gapped Carapaz through a corner and stormed to the finish to get his maiden Grand Tour stage win. Bardet won the sprint for second with Carapaz in third with a 4 second gap to del Toro. Simon Yates came in at 15 seconds with the Pellizzari, Gee, Caruso, Rubio, and Poole at 16 seconds. Carapaz moved up to second overall, 41 seconds behind del Toro. Simon Yates stays in third place, now at 51 seconds. Michael Storer lost a load of time on the day, finishing 4 minutes 5 seconds behind and is now in 10th place at 7 minutes 46 seconds.