GALLERY
THE WORLD’S BEST CYCLING PHOTOGRAPHY
Image: Gruber Images
Giro d’Italia
Stage 17, Sega di Ala, Italy
26 MAY 2021
Dani Martínez of the Ineos Grenadiers leads Simon Yates of Mitchelton-Scott, his team leader Egan Bernal in the pink jersey and Deceuninck-Quick Step’s João Almeida on stage 17 of the Giro d’Italia to Sega di Ala, with just 3.5km of the final climb to go. At this point, Bernal looked in control, with a 2:24 lead on GC ahead of the dropped Damiano Caruso, and nobody else within three minutes. With team-mate Martínez to pace him and Jonathan Castroviejo having set a fierce pace up the climb to whittle the lead group down to just a few riders, he looked to be ticking off another day in the countdown to Milan. Almeida had attacked with 4km to go, then Yates bridged up with Bernal and Martínez to form this quartet. However, Bernal had dug deep to follow Yates’s attack, and he would falter. Yates would forge ahead, though not in time to catch solo stage winner Dan Martin, while Martínez exhorted his leader to dig deep and save his Giro d’Italia.