DISCUSSION - Giro d'Italia stage 17 - Red Bull and Lidl-Trek gamble goes wrong? TT tyres for today’s stage?

Michael Valgren delivered one of the most memorable victories of his career on stage 17 of the Giro d’Italia, attacking inside the final kilometre in Andalo to take his first ever Grand Tour stage win. The 34 year old Dane emerged from a chaotic day of racing, full of attacks, regroupings and late drama, to beat Andreas Leknessund and Damiano Caruso.

The 202 kilometres stage from Cassano d’Adda to Andalo was never expected to be straightforward. With more than 3,000 metres of climbing and a demanding finale, the breakaway specialists sensed an opportunity from the opening kilometres.

After a frantic start, a strong escape eventually formed, featuring names such as Giulio Ciccone, Jhonatan Narváez, Igor Arrieta, Enric Mas, Einer Rubio, Damiano Caruso, Aleksandr Vlasov, Andreas Leknessund and Michael Valgren.

UAE Team Emirates - XRG drove the front group to set up Jhonatan Narváez for the intermediate sprint, where the Ecuadorian collected maximum points and reclaimed the lead in the points classification. But his move also lit the fuse for a relentless finale.

Attacks followed one after another, with Einer Rubio especially active on the final climbs. The Colombian repeatedly tried to split the group, but Michael Valgren remained alert and refused to let the stage slip away.

Einer Rubio, Michael Valgren and Igor Arrieta looked set to decide the stage, but hesitation allowed others, including Andreas Leknessund, Aleksandr Vlasov and Damiano Caruso, to return. Just as a reduced sprint seemed likely, Valgren made the decisive move.

The EF Education-EasyPost rider attacked at the start of the final kilometre, immediately opened a gap and never looked back. Behind him, Andreas Leknessund took second place, with Damiano Caruso completing the podium.

For Valgren, it was a landmark moment. After years of setbacks and hard racing, the Dane finally added a Grand Tour stage victory to his palmarès, doing so with the tactical instinct and timing that have long defined his best performances.

Ruben Silva from CyclingUpToDate shared his view on the day, offering an open analysis of everything that unfolded on the road.

A breakaway day, what happened in the peloton was pretty much irrelevant, although it was nice to see Jayco and Tudor working to actually defend their positions in the Top10. Whilst fully logic, it is the kind of work that you actually rarely ever see, and usually it is always saved for the final week of Grand Tours where these riders can lose their positions because the status quo is that everyone just looks at the leader's team to chase the breakaways when they are clearly not interested.

It was a day where the climbers, puncheurs and rouleurs all stood a chance. And we got a brilliant breakaway battle I should say. Two different breakaways going at different points of the stage, a lot of tactical play, but at the same time those that were the strongest had the terrain to show what they had.

The stage was ridden at a very high speed and by the end, it was form and climbing legs that mattered. Out front a group of five climbers and one classics specialists, but the ascents were just not long enough. Movistar gave it their all to win and were once again very close but had one rider who was strongest - in this case Michael Valgren.

This is exactly his type of stage, and raced in the way he likes - to the max from the start. The Dane is built for the long days out and the rolling climbs, and so he was able to respond to each attack. Surprisingly, no-one reacted when he attacked already heading into the final kilometer which was an automatic giving up the fight for the stage win, which was odd, but he also timed and executed his move to perfection.

Whilst his comeback story had already been completed, it is greatly deserved to see a rider who suffered such severe injuries a few years back crawl his way back into the peloton and show he has still got it after several years. A story very similar to that of Egan Bernal.

Carlos Silva from CiclismoAtual joined the panel and delivered a comprehensive analysis of everything that happened during today’s stage.

Today was another brutal day on the bike in Italy. Beyond the intense heat, the riders also had to deal with heavy rain. In some parts of the route, you could even see that hail had fallen earlier. Thankfully, the peloton wasn’t exposed to the rain for too long, because they would have gone through major temperature swings, and we already saw the consequences of that during the first week of the race.

After that stage, where the riders spent five hours in cold rain, the withdrawals started coming and several others began getting sick. At this stage of the race, with the riders’ immune systems already weakened, that could have been a disaster.

Another thing that caught my attention early in the day was the huge number of riders changing bikes and suffering punctures. It was very unusual. I heard someone say there were rumours in the peloton that many riders had opted to use different tyres than usual. Some even claimed that certain riders were racing on time trial tyres. Whether that was true or not, I honestly don’t know. But what happened today definitely wasn’t normal.

As for the race itself, congratulations to Michael Valgren for his performance. Although, to be fair, he probably should have collaborated more with Einer Rubio when the two of them were isolated at the front of the race. The EF Education rider even refused to work at one point. That allowed the chasing group to come back, with Andreas Leknessund, another major contender for the stage win, rejoining the front. It could easily have backfired on Valgren. Fortunately for him, his gamble paid off and he got the happy ending he wanted.

Chapeau as well to a fearless Rémi Cavagna. Even though he did little more than ride alone into the wind for dozens of kilometres, that alone was enough to keep the stage favourites under pressure.

Giulio Ciccone and Jhonatan Narváez were seen at the start as the two big favourites for the day, yet neither of them came remotely close to fighting for the stage win. Narváez and the UAE Team Emirates - XRG did what they had to do by taking maximum points at the intermediate sprint, but after that the Emirates squad allowed riders to go up the road, they gained time, and the gap was never brought back under control.

Narváez no longer seems to have the same freshness he had earlier in the race, which is perfectly understandable, and because of that I’m starting to doubt he can still wear the Cyclamen Jersey in Rome.

As for Ciccone, unless I’m completely wrong, I think he’s going to finish this Giro without a victory. Opportunities are running out quickly for those who still haven’t won a stage, and if Lidl-Trek continues like this, they will end this Giro as one of the teams with a negative rating. Not even a possible win for Jonathan Milan in Rome would be enough to save such an underwhelming performance from the American squad.

We’ll see what the coming days bring.

Javier Rampe, our colleague from CiclismoAlDia, also shared his opinion on what he witnessed during Stage 17.

A breakaway that was allowed too much freedom has pushed Damiano Caruso, Jan Hirt and David de la Cruz up the general classification. Around the top 20 positions, of course, because the territory of the true giants of this race seems increasingly closed off.

At this stage, I can understand why Visma continues with its defensive tactical approach, the kind of cycling we were once told was the definitive formula: mountain train, relentless pace and a final launch, almost like a sprint finish but in the high mountains just metres from the finish banner.

What I still cannot understand is the role of teams like Red Bull and Lidl-Trek, stubbornly focused on improving the positions of secondary leaders such as Aleksandr Vlasov or Giulio Ciccone, instead of concentrating on what really matters, attacking the virtual podium of the Giro d’Italia. At this rate, they’ll drag Davide Piganzoli into the fight for the podium places in Rome.

They must know what they are doing. For Jonas Vingegaard, Damiano Caruso is not a direct rival, but I wonder what Derek Gee, Michael Storer or Jai Hindley are thinking. Keep riding at the same steady pace, hand in hand, all the way to the Eternal City.

The only rider who really tried something different today was Felix Gall, but he eventually surrendered to the best Grand Tour rider of this generation, the Dane from Visma, who unfortunately had the bad luck of running into the greatest cyclist in history.

From a Spanish perspective, it was a very positive day for David de la Cruz and Igor Arrieta, both continuing to climb the standings. Meanwhile, Movistar Team keeps trying in the same way every time, like the script of a novel you already know by heart: desperate attacks launched without restraint, but without the ability to finish the job.

Years without a leader capable of delivering. Years without Alejandro Valverde, who today would not have failed the way Einer Rubio did.

Stage 17 delivered exactly what makes a Grand Tour so captivating: tactical uncertainty, shifting momentum and riders willing to gamble everything for a single opportunity. Michael Valgren emerged as a fully deserved winner after reading the race perfectly, surviving the relentless attacks and timing his decisive move with precision. It was a stage shaped by chaos, weather changes, punctures and constant aggression, but also by hesitation from others when the crucial moment arrived. The Dane’s victory was more than just a stage win, it was another chapter in one of cycling’s most remarkable comeback stories.