2021 Giro d’Italia stage 17: Dan Martin goes solo for the win on steep slopes of Sega di Ala

Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) took the brutal, uphill stage 17 win at the 2021 Giro d’Italia.

Martin now has stage wins at all three grand tours.

“I still can’t believe it is happening,” Martin said. “We had a plan to put me in the breakaway and everybody worked for that. I didn’t think it would happen because we had a strong wind. But somehow I managed to hang on.”

The VICTORY salute:

He couldn’t believe it… and neither could we!

Surely we will celebrate this astonishing performance with a great glass of @FarneseVini tonight!#YallaISN #partofthevictory #Giro @DanMartin86 @CeramicSpeed pic.twitter.com/c7dcN0ogkO

— Israel Start-Up Nation / Israel Cycling Academy (@TeamIsraelSUN) May 26, 2021

The 194km stage from Canazei to Sega di Ala took the peloton on a long descent and some flats before assaulting the cat 1 Passo San Valentino and then the steep cat 1 ascent to the finish.

Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) lost time in the closing three kilometers of the stage when he could not hold onto an attack initiated by Simon Yates (Team BikeExchange). The Colombian marked second place overall Damiano Caruso (Bahrain-Victorious) at 3km to go and had to dig deep to struggle to get to the finish.

“Today was a tough day for me, for sure. The last kilometers were really steep and I tried to follow Yates but today he was stronger than me. I just tried to arrive with Caruso, who is the closest in the GC. I didn’t want to take any risks. For sure, Yates was impressive today and I just tried to do my best,” Bernal said.

How it happened

With two significant climbs coming in the second half of the stage, a break looked determined to make good on the gap it was allowed by the maglia rosa bunch.

Some 19 riders were away with 70km to go and had nearly four minutes advantage on Bernal’s group.

Team BikeExchange, Trek-Segafredo, Astana-Premier Tech, and Bahrain-Victorious were at the front in pursuit, knowing the climbing to come and how it would bring the race back together.

On the first big climb, of the Passo San Valentino, Team BikeExchange took the lead, and set an aggressive pace for road captain Simon Yates. This shed Felix Großschartner (Bora-Hansgrohe) from the bunch, and the Australian team’s efforts shaved the gap to the front of the race by 60 seconds to 2:30 at 43km to go.

Halfway up the climb, only nine riders remained of the initial 19 in the break.

Martin went to the front of the break to try to limit the time losses to the chasers and only Gianni Moscon (Ineos Grenadiers) and Antonio Pedrero (Movistar tyeam) could go with the Irishman’s move.

Over the top the break had exploded, but the descent allowed several riders to reconnect with Martin.

At 32km to go, a crash brought favorites down Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) and Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo), and gapped his teammate Vincenzo Nibali.

Evenepoel was slow to get up, but the young Belgian received medical attention and then was escorted by teammates in pursuit of the main group.

Ciccone, in sixth overall at the time, got a bike change several kilometers later in preparation for the final climb.

The main bunch led by Ineos Grenadiers took back massive chunks of time into the base of the Sega di Ala climb, and the gap to the front was down to just 80 seconds.

Martin attacked at 10km to go, with only Antonio Pedrero (Movistar Team) unsuccessfully trying to go with this acceleration, but quickly dropped back.

Behind the head of the race, Luis Leon Sanchez went on the attack from the main group, along with Hugh Carthy and Alberto Bettiol (both EF Eduction-Nippo), and Aleksandr Vlasov (Astana-Premier Tech), but this move would later prove to be very costly for the EF Education-Nippo captain.

Ciccone appeared to suffer on the final climb as a result of crashing and having to do a lot of work to get back into the main bunch.

Maglia rosa on the defense

At 6km to go in the main group, Hugh Carthy (EF Education-Nippo) then struggled with the pace of Ineos Grenadiers, who had taken to the front to chase after the remains of the break.

João Almeida (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) attacked Bernal’s group at 4.5km to go. But when Simon Yates (Team BikeExchange) went on the move, Damiano Caruso (Bahrain-Victorious) and Bernal chased after him.

And then Bernal struggled.

Almeida kept the pressure on, with Yates and Bernal chasing as they were inside of a minute behind Martin. The pace prove to be too much for Bernal, who on the previous stage had indicated he was aware of some discomfort in his back.

Bernal was gapped with 3.5km to go under pressure from Yates and Almeida. Teammate Dani Martínez went back to escort the maglia rosa in the final kilometers.

Yates, sensing Bernal was in trouble kept hammering on the front of the chase group, with only Almeida and Pedrero able to go with him.

#Giro 🇮🇹

Yatesy on the attack! 💥

What a sight! 😍 pic.twitter.com/quv1kCLlj1

— Team BikeExchange-Jayco (@GreenEDGEteam) May 26, 2021

Martínez was sent back to escort Bernal, but the pink jersey could not hold his teammate’s wheel.

Yates’ pace closed the gap to just half a minute behind Martin inside of 1.5km to go.

Pedrero was dropped by Yates and Almeida in the final 1.5km.

Almeida then took over the lead from Yates at the red kite, and rode into second-place on the stage. Yates trailed across the line in third, 17 seconds behind Almeida

Bernal rode in with Caruso, clearly struggling in the final, relatively flat kilometer.

“That’s what I came here for, to try and win a stage, and I knew that today was one of my last opportunities. With the extra time I lost the day before the breakaway it was possible to go in the breakaway. To do it is incredible,” Martin added.

What’s to come

Stage 18 Thursday (231km) from Rovereto to Stradella is another long-haul day with some undulation in the first 80km, mostly-flat middle 80km, and four very short but steep bumps in the closing 40km.