Sam Bennett’s final surge came very late indeed in the wet sprint. And in the end he was only just beaten on the line for what would have been a third stage win. Instead, Elia Viviani collected his fourth victory of this race.
Having already claimed two stages on the Giro, Sam Bennett went close again today but had to be content with 2nd place.
In a sodden bunch sprint into Iseo on stage 17 this afternoon, Elia Viviani (QuickStep) collected his fourth victory of the race.
And while Bennett finished very fast, he couldn’t get Viviani on the line. The winner got a very good lead-out from his team and was perhaps helped by Bennett coming from a long way back.
In something of a controversial move, the neutralised section was extended when one of the QuickStep riders suffered a mechanical.
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It meant a large section of the unclassified climb the race started on was not raced; a development that suited Viviani, who is a very poor climber.
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A frantic sprint finish ends in victory for @eliaviviani in the treacherous conditions ?#Giro101 pic.twitter.com/vWLmNi3c9C
— Eurosport UK (@Eurosport_UK) May 23, 2018
Indeed, Bennett’s Bora-hansgrohe team rode hard on the front in an apparent bid to drop Viviani early. But it did not work, the Italian fastman getting over the hill in one piece.
And while many groups broke clear during the stage, none of them looked like they would make it all the way as the sprinters’ teams sat on the front of the bunch and rode.
The strongest of those groups was made up of a really strong mix of riders; Wout Poels (Team Sky), Alessandro De Marchi (BMC), Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) and Ben Hermans (Israel Cycling Academy).
After their recapture, and in very wet conditions at the end of the 155km leg, it was Viviani who proved too strong.
He won it from Bennett and Niccolo Bonifazio (Bahrain-Merida). Next came Danny van Poppel (LottoNL-Jumbo), Jens Debusschere (Lotto Soudal) and Kristian Sbaragli (Israel Cycling Academy).
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