Colombian climber Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain) won the 17th stage of the Tour of Italy alone on Wednesday in Lavarone, in the province of Trentino (north). Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz (Ineos) kept the leader’s pink jersey with an unchanged lead of 3 seconds over Australian Jai Hindley, four days from the finish. Buitrago, a young 22-year-old runner, beat the Dutchman Gijs Leemreize, also born in 1999, by around thirty seconds. The Czech Jan Hirt, winner the day before in Aprica, took third place, more than two minutes .
Carapaz, Hindley and the Spaniard Mikel Landa could not decide between themselves in the climbs, as the day before already. On the other hand, the Portuguese Joao Almeida weakened again and this time gave up more than a minute on Carapaz and Hindley. He fell from third to fourth place overall. In this 168 kilometer mountain stage, the Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel has long rivaled the climbers. He tackled the last climb, the Menador, in the lead, in the company of Leemreize with more than a minute ahead of other members of the breakaway formed at the start of the stage (Carthy, Hirt, Bouwman, G. Martin , Buitrago, Gall, Vansevenant).
The double winner of the Tour of Flanders, who had emerged with his compatriot in the previous descent, distanced Leemreize in the first hectometres of the Menador before paying for his efforts in this difficult ascent (7.9 km at 9.9%) . Approaching the summit, culminating at 1261 meters above sea level, Leemreize was overtaken by Buitrago who then rushed towards the finish, 8 kilometers away. The rider from Bogota, who crashed during the stage, signed his second success after winning the mountain stage of the Saudi Tour in February. And the first of a Colombian rider in this Giro.
During the stage, Briton Simon Yates retired, four days after his second stage success in Turin. The 2018 Vuelta winner had been suffering from a knee since his fall from the 4th stage, his BikeExchange team explained. Thursday, the Tour of Italy descends into the plain during the 18th stage which links Borgo Valsugana to Treviso over 156 kilometers. For the sprinters, this is the last opportunity to shine.
