Alberto Dainese bounced again from abdomen issues to win stage 17 of the Giro d’Italia in a photograph end as Geraint Thomas completed safely to retain the chief’s pink jersey.
Dainese, who has spent a number of days struggling with sickness, edged out the quick approaching Jonathan Milan by a tyre’s width in Caorle with Michael Matthews a few inches additional again.
Mark Cavendish, nonetheless in search of a primary win of the season a few days after asserting it might be his final as knowledgeable, had been close to the entrance of the bunch on the strategy to city.
But the Manxman misplaced place on one in every of two tight left-handers contained in the final two kilometres and couldn’t contest the dash, exhibiting his frustration as he rolled over the road. There ought to be another alternative for a dash on Sunday’s closing stage in Rome.
Thomas was guided into the end by Ineos Grenadiers team-mate Ben Swift, staying secure to retain his 18-second benefit over Joao Almeida within the normal classification, with Primoz Roglic sat third, 29 seconds down.
That means the Welshman will spend his thirty seventh birthday in pink when the race returns to the mountains on Thursday going into the decisive weekend.
“It was an alright day, a little bit of rain but nothing compared to what we’ve had so far,” Thomas stated.
“It was a bit of a crazy bunch finish, we’re happy to get that done. We knew the sprint teams would race a decent pace and we were able to save as much as possible for the next three days.
“It will be nice (tomorrow), hopefully it will be a good day. There’s lots of work to do before (Sunday), we’ll take tomorrow first.”
Before the mountains to come back, this was a uncommon alternative for the sprinters, and their willpower to take it was clear as a four-man breakaway that included Charlie Quarterman was provided little margin and little hope, by no means constructing rather more than a 90-second benefit.
The final of these escapees, Senne Leysen, was caught with 5 kilometres left of the 197km from Pergine Valsugana, nearly all of which was both flat or downhill.
When the dash started, Matthews struck out first however Dainese, racing near residence within the north east of Italy, used his slipstream to come back round to the correct.
More of a shock was the storming end of Milan, who appeared out of place on the ultimate bend however this Giro’s in-form sprinter had the tempo to get inside a couple of millimetres of victory.
“This is insane,” stated the 25-year-old Dainese. “The first sprints didn’t go as we planned, we did a good job but we never had a good result to show it…
“In the last metres I was really digging deep. I saw Jonny coming, I couldn’t really throw my bike because I was on the limit but it was nice to get my wheel a few centimetres in front to get the win.
“Especially after the last five days, I was quite sick with stomach issues and also my breathing was not good and today was the first day I was feeling good. I’m super happy, I can’t thank my team enough for keeping me in the race and keeping me motivated.”