"At the sign on, I thought to myself 'F*ck! I have good legs today'" - Georg Steinhauser arrives in the big time with stage win on Grand Tour debut at Giro d'Italia

In his first Grand Tour, EF Education-EasyPost's Georg Steinhauser already has his first stage win after a very impressive ride on stage 17 of the 2024 Giro d'Italia.

Having attacked relatively early on as part of the breakaway, Steinhauser saw he and his companions somewhat curiously reeled back in by Team DSM-Firmenich PostNL with around 50km to go. Undeterred however, the German launched another attack soon after and although he had the company of Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier for a short while afterwards, the 22-year-old took on the entire final climb solo, even holding off a late Tadej Pogacar attack in the process.

"It is something unbelievable!" reflected a delighted Steinhauser post-stage. The German comes from good stock with family ties to the sport in his father Tobias and uncle, Jan Ullrich, with this stage win not being the first showing of his immense potential over the last couple of weeks. "Already on stage 8 I felt good legs and I thought I could maybe win a stage. The queen stage was unbelievable (he finished 3rd ed.) and I would been happy with just that but at the sign on, I thought to myself 'Fuck! I have good legs today, maybe I can win today."'

"I went from the beginning in the break and it was a little bit strange because we got caught by the peloton again. But, I decided I had to try again and when I did, it worked out," he continues. "To be honest, I didn't really think about much, I was just concentrating on the roads as they were wet and slippery. I was just in the zone."

As mentioned, with around 2.5km to go, the Maglia Rosa Tadej Pogacar attacked from the GC group and although Steinhauser had around a two minute advantage, the ominous feeling of 'here we go again' began to take hold. "I was super nervous on the last climb. I knew I had to push all the way to the finish and yeah, I heard at one point he was attacking but I was already 2km to go so I knew I could make it," the German concludes.