Georg Steinhauser emulates uncle Jan Ullrich and becomes Grand Tour stage winner with victory on stage 17 of 2024 Giro d'Italia

Stage 17 saw something of a rarity at the 2024 Giro d'Italia, as Tadej Pogacar has not even contested for the win. Instead, EF Education-EasyPost's Georg Steinhauser, nephew of Jan Ullrich through marriage, has powered to the summit win atop Passo Brocon, taking victory on stage 17.

In a frantic opening to the stage, there was no let-up at all in the pace over the first hour or so as riders repeatedly tried to force a breakaway only for subsequent counter-attacks or unhappy GC teams refusing to let the moves go. Eventually, a 10-rider group formed up ahead including the likes of Julian Alaphilippe, Nairo Quintana, Giulio Pellizzari, Damiano Caruso, Attila Valter, Georg Steinhauser, Nicola Conci, Davide Ballerini, Marco Frigo and Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier. 

With Pellizzari taking maximum points at both of the first two climbs of the day, the first of which was the Cima Coppi of this Giro d'Italia, the talented Italian prospect, who finished second behind Tadej Pogacar on stage 16, is now very much in the fight for the King of the Mountains jersey classification, led at the start of the day by UAE Team Emirates' Pogacar.

At the front of the peloton however, Team DSM-Firmenich PostNL were riding hard to control the gap, keeping things at around a minute between the two groups. With just over 60km to go, Kevin Vermaeke gave Romain Bardet something of a leadout, in the process catching the break and splitting the peloton into an elite group of GC contenders. Having done the hard work and reeled in the break though, DSM stalled. Steinhauser and Ghebreigzabhier sensing the lull, attacked again to get back ahead of the bunch. With 40km to go, the leading duo had stretched their advantage back out over the one minute mark despite Team DSM-Firmenich PostNL returning to the front of the Maglia Rosa group.

With just over 2km left of the penultimate climb, Steinhauser began to distance his breakaway companion. By the time the EF Education-EasyPost man had summited the climb, his advantage was 21 seconds over Ghebreigzabhier, with the remainder of the peloton now 1:44 down the road. As the final ascent of the Passo Brocon began, Steinhauser was looking good for the stage win. The GC group with most notably Tadej Pogacar, were around three minutes down.

INEOS Grenadiers were at the front of the peloton and with 5km to go, Jhonatan Narvaez began to increase the pace on the front of the bunch with 5km to go, with casualties immediately dropping out the back of a dwindling Maglia Rosa group. When Thymen Arensman took over, things began to separate even further behind him with even 4th on GC Ben O'Connor struggling. Despite the acceleration though, the gap between the GC group and Steinhauser wasn't changing too dramatically.

At 2.5km to go, Daniel Martinez made an attack with Tadej Pogacar and Geraint Thomas straight on the back wheel of the Colombian. Just moments later, Pogacar attacked himself and with 2.1km to go, Steinhauser had just over two minutes to hold on for the stage win. Behind Pogacar, the rest of the podium contenders immediately began to race amongst themselves.

With 1km to go for Steinhauser, the German still had 1:38 over Pogacar but the time gap was dropping with every pedal stroke of the Maglia Rosa. Thankfully for Steinhauser however, the UAE Team Emirates leader had just started his attack too late for another stage win and the 22-year-old held on for the first win of his professional career, on Grand Tour debut.