Santiago Buitrago wins Stage 17 at Giro d’Italia; Mathieu Van der Poel shines, Richard Carapaz keeps pink

Tears of sadness on Sunday turned to tears of joy on Wednesday as Santiago Buitrago picked up a maiden Grand Tour stage win with a fantastic solo effort in Lavarone. After missing out against Guilio Ciccone in Cogne, the 22-year-old Colombian bounced back three days later on an explosive Stage 17 in the Italian Alps as Bahrain-Victorious teammate Mikel Landa moved into the podium positions at the expense of Portugal’s Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates).

Ad/> Buitrago rebounded from a crash with 80km remaining before reeling in leading Dutch duo Gijs Leemreize (Jumbo-Visma) and the indefatigable Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) on the final climb. Keeping his cool on the descent to Lavarone, Buitrago pointed to the sky as he crossed the line to take an outstanding win by 35 seconds on the impressive Leemreize, another 22-year-old Giro debutant who himself came close to victory in Genova in Stage 12.

Giro d'Italia‘Get out the way, you dingo!’ – Wiggins salutes ‘aggressive little’ Porte3 HOURS AGO Czech climber Jan Hirt, the Intermarche-Wanty-Gobert rider who won Tuesday’s Stage 16, took third place ahead of Britain’s Hugh Carthy (EF Education-EasyPost) as the last riders from the initial 24-man break held on before the GC favourites battled tooth and nail right to the end. A succession of attacks from Bahrain Victorious duo Landa and Wout Poels had decimated the maglia rosa group on that decisive ascent of Monterovere – most notably dropping the white jersey of Almeida.