AG2R-La Mondiale’s Nans Peters launched a brave, brilliant solo attack to win Giro d’Italia Stage 17 in Anterselva/Antholz and claim his first professional win.
The young Frenchman accelerated away from an 18-man escape group with 16km remaining and won by 1’34” from Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-SCOTT), with Davide Formolo (BORA-hansgrohe) third, 1’51” back.
Chaves and Valerio Conti (UAE Team Emirates) tried to bridge across to the lone attacker when Peters had built a gap of around a minute, but he was just too strong on the 28km-long final climb to the ski resort in South Tyrol.
Meanwhile Mikel Landa (Movistar Team) attacked from the group of GC favourites with just over a kilometre to go, along with team-mate and Maglia Rosa Richard Carapaz, leaving Vincenzo Nibali (Team Bahrain Merida) and Primoz Roglic (Team Jumbo-Visma) behind.
Nibali and Roglic limited their losses to seven seconds, meaning Carapaz now leads GC from Nibali by 1’54”. Roglic is 2’16” behind in third place while fourth-placed Landa closed the gap to the Maglia Rosa to 3’03”.
The stage had begun in predictable fashion with a massive scrap to form the breakaway. Eventually an 18-man move went clear containing some very strong riders, like Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) and Bob Jungels (Deceuninck - Quick Step) along with Formolo and Chaves.
Jan Bakelants (Team Sunweb) struck out from the breakaway on his own, but was brought back before the final climb, before Peters made his decisive move and powered incredibly impressively to his first pro win.
See more VelonLive infographics from Stage 17:
