Pierre Rolland wins stage 17 of the Giro d'Italia.
(Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Pierre Rolland (Cannondale-Drapac) showed that he has kept the strong form that propelled him to a stage win in the Giro d'Italia by taking out the queen stage of the Route du Sud in Gavarnie.
The Frenchman attacked a select leading group on the category 1 final climb with 4km to go, and by the end had amassed a 42 second advantage on his nearest chasers, led to the line by Sky's Gianni Moscon.
"I'm very satisfied and happy with how things went today," Rolland said. "I'm actually really happy with the last few months. The Giro d'Italia went well, it sets me up quite nicely for the Tour de France. I did 30 hours of training last week, and this is the final part of my preparation for the Tour de France, and I'm really happy with the progress."
In third, Movistar's Richard Carapaz, the best young rider in the race, was challenging for the overall race lead after overnight leader Julien Loubet (Armee de Terre) was dropped, and sprinted to third over Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale-Drapac).
However, BMC's Silvan Dillier, who had picked up a time bonus at the intermediate sprint, narrowly managed to limit enough losses to capture the leader's jersey by a single second over the Ecuadoran. He came in 55 seconds down on Rolland, but more importantly just 13 seconds behind Carapaz.
Dillier leads the race by one second over the Movistar rider, with Sky's Kenny Elissonde in third at a distant 1:38.
"If somebody had told me before the race that I was going to be going for the general classification at Route du Sud, I would have told them that they were crazy," Dillier said. "But now it is happening. The first objective was to make the breakaway today to get some bonus seconds and points for the sprint jersey, and then I took it climb by climb to see where I ended up at the top and how much I could get back on the descents. All of a sudden, I was in a position to take the leader's jersey and I took it by one second.
"On the final climb, Gianni Moscon (Team Sky) and Pierre Rolland (Cannondale-Drapac Pro Cycling Team) were with me but they told me that it was up to me to do all of the pulling because I was going for the GC. So I basically did my own time trial all the way to the finish. They attacked me with about 5km to go but I just kept my own rhythm and eventually, Richard Carapaz (Movistar Team) overtook me with 250m to go. I was going full gas and couldn't accelerate anymore. Eventually, I just crossed the finish line with the right time to take the jersey.
"It's a flat stage tomorrow so it's one for the sprinters. So, I think the only way Carapaz can take the jersey from me is with bonus seconds. You also have to pay attention to splits at the finish line. But, I think we have a good team to defend the jersey. I didn't think I would be in this position at Route du Sud."
The 167km stage into the high mountains of the Pyrenees exploded before the peloton reached the Col du Tourmalet, with the breakaway including Dillier, Moscon, Rolland and Jose Rojas (Movistar Team), Jhttponathan Lastra Martinez (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Sergey Chernetskiy (Astana), Nicolas Edet (Cofidis), Julien Antomarchi (Roubaix -Lille Métropole), Christophe Riblon, Quentin Jauregui (AG2R La Mondiale), and Aitor Gonzalez (Euskadi Basque Country-Murias).
Edet, Moscon and Rolland broke free on the Col du Tourmalet, but Edet was dropped before the ascent, and the two WorldTour riders continued on together, with Dillier chasing at a distance.
The Swiss rider kept chasing alone all the way over the category 2 Gaborisse and on to the final climb, where he finally made contact with the two leaders.
Rolland attacked with 4km to go and stayed clear until the finish. Although Dillier was swinging like a barn door, and was passed by Carapaz and Uran in the final kilometer, he held on just long enough to take the race lead
http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/route-du-sud-la-depeche-du-midi-2017/stage-3/results/
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