Madonna di Campiglio (Italy) (AFP)
Australian Ben O'Connor (NTT) won the 17th stage of the Giro d'Italia cycling race on Wednesday in the Madonna di Campiglio resort in the north of the country.
The Portuguese Joao Almeida (Deceuninck) kept the leader's pink jersey on the eve of the queen stage, which must cross the Stelvio, one of the highest passes in Europe at 2758 meters above sea level.
The day after his second place in San Daniele del Friuli, where he was overwhelmed in the last kilometer by Slovenian Jan Tratnik, O'Connor took his revenge.
He beat the Austrian Hermann Pernsteiner, a teammate of Tratnik, by 31 seconds, and the Belgian Thomas De Gendt by more than one minute.
In this 203 kilometer stage which included four listed climbs, a breakaway provided by 19 riders opened the race.
A group broke free to tackle the final climb (12.5 km at 5.7%) with less than six minutes in advance.
Up front, O'Connor took his distance 8.8 kilometers from the finish on a trio of pursuers (De Gendt, Pernsteiner, Zakarin).
Behind him, Pernsteiner started in pursuit but he regularly conceded time on the rolling climb of Madonna di Campiglio.
24-year-old O'Connor rose to prominence in 2018 when he won a mountain stage in the Tour des Alpes ahead of Thibaut Pinot.
On Wednesday, he won for the first time in a grand tour.
Apart from a few skirmishes, which were quickly stopped, the favorites remained in reserve on the eve of the queen stage of the race.
On Thursday, the Giro is indeed presenting its last great high mountain course, if the change announcing the removal of two major passes, the Agnel and the Izoard, from the Saturday program of the 20th stage is formalized.
Between Pinzolo and the Cancano lakes (207 km), the race climbs the Stelvio, the highest point of this edition.
At the top, there are 37 kilometers left, the long, freezing descent with low temperatures and the final climb of 8.7 kilometers at 6.8% gradient.
© 2020 AFP