Phew! Where shall any of us begin when discussing Stage 17 of the 104th Giro d’Italia? I have had more than an hour and a half to ponder this question, and I can confidently say that I still have not the slightest clue! So much happened inside the final 20km that the mind blurs it together into one big, hot mess of awesome racing. So let’s start where we always start stories like this: with the winner. Israel Start-Up Nation’s Dan Martin took a solo win, despite all odds stacked against him, to complete his grand tour hat-trick atop the Sega di Ala.

Mentioning his win does not even begin to scrape the slightest dribble of ice from the iceberg. Chaos reigned supreme in the group of GC favourites with scintillating teams tactics, downhill crashes, and the first moment of weakness from race leader Egan Bernal. The flaunty Colombian retains the maglia rosa, but today’s spicy racing lit a flame of hope that everything is still to play for in this third week of racing! Continue reading →