France’s Pierre Rolland on Wednesday swelled with emotion after ending a two-year victory drought with an impressive win on the 17th stage of the Giro d’Italia.
Dutchman Tom Dumoulin of Team Sunweb retained the race leader’s maglia rosa and maintained his 31-second overall lead on Colombian Nairo Quintana of Movistar after the pair rolled over the finish line nearly eight minutes in arrears in the peloton.
Their battle for the maglia rosa was due to move up a notch on a spectacular 18th stage in the Italian Dolomites yesterday when Dumoulin expects to “come under attack” from Quintana and Italian rival Vincenzo Nibali of Bahrain-Merida in third, 1 minute, 12 seconds back.
Photo: AFP
However, as the general classification contenders enjoyed some respite on a far easier 219km ride from Tirano to Canazei, Italy, Cannondale-Drapac rider Rolland seized the day.
Looking for his first win since securing a stage at the 2015 Vuelta a Castilla y Leon in Spain, Rolland kept his calm amid a tense finale to come over the finish in a mixture of disbelief and joy.
“I’m just so happy. I’ve waited for this for so long,” Rolland said. “In 2015 I finished second in a Tour de France stage and last year, when I crashed twice on the Tour, was a year to forget for me. I worked so hard to prepare for the Giro — I had my eye more on a stage like yesterday’s or tomorrow’s, but I’m so happy with this win.”
Rolland launched the first breakaway of the day, dragging Pavel Brutt of Gazprom–RusVelo and Matej Mohoric of UAE Team Emirates with him for company, and when a 40-man chase group caught them in the final stages he kept his cool ahead of a fraught finish.
With less than 8km remaining, Rolland attacked solo to build a small lead that, thanks to the cat-and-mouse tactics of his fellow companions, boosted his hopes of going all the way.
With only 2.5km remaining, their deficit had grown to a virtually unassailable 26 seconds and Rolland, gritting his teeth, went all the way to the finish line.
“I attacked from the first kilometer, but when I saw only two guys coming with me I thought: ‘What a long day we have ahead of us,’ but after very hard stages like yesterday there are few riders motivated to get into a breakaway,” Rolland said. “I took the first climb easy, paced myself on the second climb then waited for the big group to catch us. I had my teammate Michael Woods with me for the sprint if it [the chase] came back, but with 1km to go I knew I’d won. I’m just so happy.”
Dumoulin almost lost the maglia rosa on Tuesday due to a desperate toilet stop that slashed his overnight lead of 2:41 down to 31 seconds.
Ahead of a grueling 18th stage over 137km from Moena to Ortisei-St Ulrich that was to feature four mountain passes and an uphill finish, the big Dutchman expected another tough day in the saddle.
“It will be full gas from the start. A really hard day, but we have to stay calm and see what happens,” Dumoulin said. “They will attack me. I expect Vincenzo and Nairo to make it very hard for me tomorrow [Thursday].”
“We have to try, because if you don’t you end up left with regrets,” said Nibali, who is looking to win the race for the third time.
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