Stage 17

The road

At the start

Five minutes, and four days left

The Nevegal time trial took another 38 seconds out of Scarponi and 34 out of Nibali, and Contador now leads them by 4:58 and 5:45. The maglia rosa is effectively settled; second place is not. Today is 230 kilometres from Feltre to Tirano over the Passo del Tonale and the long drag to the Aprica, with eighteen kilometres of descent and valley road after it — a day the breakaway should have.

How it was won

1. 1176 km to go

   Fifteen, at 48 km/h

   The first hour is raced at 48 km/h with nothing sticking. On the approach to Levico Terme the elastic finally goes and fifteen riders escape, with Italian champion Giovanni Visconti doing most of the work to make sure of it.

2. 264 km to go

   Six minutes at the Tonale

   They cross the Passo del Tonale 6:10 clear. Saxo Bank have a man in there and no reason to care, but Sivtsov is twelfth overall, Dupont fifteenth and Le Mevel sixteenth, and the teams sitting on top-ten places start doing sums.

3. 319 km to go

   Eleven over the Aprica

   The fifteen tear each other apart on the fifteen-kilometre drag to the Aprica and reassemble anyway: eleven crest the summit together with 18.5 kilometres of descent and flat to the line. Lastras tries to steal it on the technical part and is brought back.

4. 4At the line

   Tirano, and the commissaires

   Bakelants leads it out from 500 metres, Ulissi kicks at 300, and Visconti comes up the barrier side and shoves him twice with his forearm to get through. The Italian champion crosses first in his own Grand Tour and is relegated to third within minutes. Diego Ulissi, twenty-one years old, is awarded the stage.

The result