France’s Nans Peters on Wednesday crossed the line alone to claim his maiden victory in the 17th stage of the Giro d’Italia as Ecuador’s Richard Carapaz tightened his grip on the leader’s pink jersey with four days of racing left.
Peters, riding for AG2R La Mondiale, blew away his rivals at the end of the 181km run through the north of Italy near the Austrian border.
The 25-year-old pulled clear 16km from the line and had built up an advantage of one minute at the foot of the 5.5km final climb.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“It’s enormous! I’d never won, I’d always come close,” the rider from the mountainous region of Isere in southeastern France said.
Mitchelton-Scott’s Esteban Chaves of Colombia finished a distant second, 1 minute, 30 seconds behind, with Italy’s Davide Formolo of Bora-Hansgrohe third at 1 minute, 51 seconds.
“It’s incredible to get my first pro win in a Grand Tour,” Peters said. “My Giro was already a success having, worn the top young rider’s white jersey for a few days. I had no stress.”
Peters had already been among the leaders in the sixth stage, but had been unable to finish off and dropped to eighth. However, that allowed him to pull on the white jersey for three days.
Movistar’s Carapaz kept the overall leader’s pink jersey, extending his lead over Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) and Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) by seven seconds.
Britain’s Simon Yates, the Vuelta a Espana champion, remained eighth, 7 minutes, 13 seconds behind the race leader.
A group of 18 riders had formed a breakaway in an animated start after Tuesday’s wet and cold conditions at Mortirolo.
“I focused on Formolo and [Thomas] De Gendt, who were the strongmen of the breakaway,” Peters said. “I saw that the others were biding their time and I went for it without questioning myself.”
Carapaz put his foot down on the pedal over the final kilometer, to widen the gap on Nibali, who he leads by 1 minute, 54 seconds.
Movistar rider Mikel Landa of Spain also attacked and is now less than a minute behind third-placed Roglic in fourth.
“Mikel Landa felt good in the finale and decided to attack to gain some time for the final podium,” Carapaz said. “I also felt good and I did my best to profit from Mikel’s attack. I couldn’t have asked for a better 26th birthday than ... the Maglia Rosa.”
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