Steinhauser solos to stage win, Pogacar increases Giro lead

Germany's George Steinhauser halted race leader Tadej Pogacar's streak of stage wins at the Giro d'Italia with a solo victory after a day of incessant climbing on Wednesday.

Steinhauser (EF Education–EasyPost) went alone on the first climb of the Passo Brocon with just over 30km of the 159km 17th stage remaining and continued to open up a sizeable gap over Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier.

With the peloton showing no real urgency in giving chase, the 22-year-old Grand Tour debutant Steinhauser powered up the second climb of Passo Brocon in steady rain to take the victory.

Giro debutant Pogacar had won the 15th and 16th stages to open up a huge gap in the battle for the Maglia Rosa but resisted the urge to make it a hat-trick.

The UAE Team Emirates rider accelerated away from the main group in the final kilometres to put more distance between himself and his supposed general classification rivals.

Pogacar finished one minute and 24 seconds behind Steinhauser to push his overall lead towards eight minutes. (This story has been refiled to change Thursday to Wednesday in paragraph 1)