Giro d'Italia 2024 stage 17 GC Update: Tadej Pogacar gains time again as Einer Rubio moves up to 8th

Stage 17 of the Giro d'Italia 2024 once again promised a lot of excitement when it came to the fight for the general classification. Whilst Georg Steinhauser held on for the stage win from the breakaway, Tadej Pogacar put yet more time into his rivals with a late attack.

In truth, the climb could have affected the general classification much more than it did, as there wasn't much movement in the group of favourites until almost the last two kilometres. Daniel Martinez tried an attack from the peloton with the aim of putting more time on Geraint Thomas, who is his main rival in the fight for second place. That attack was immediately followed by Pogacar as the Slovenian continues to demonstrate that he has no rival in this Giro d'Italia. Without even breaking sweat he left the rest of his so-called rivals behind and went for the second position of the day, gaining more time and getting closer to a buffer of 10 minutes, which seems to be the only goal that the Slovenian could set at this point. Right now, Tadej Pogacar is 7 minutes and 42 seconds ahead of Daniel Martinez, and 8 minutes and 4 seconds ahead of Geraint Thomas.

In the group of the rest of the podium hopefuls, Antonio Tiberi, Einer Rubio, Geraint Thomas and Daniel Martinez all got the same time. Rubio was the big beneficiary of the day, rising a position to 8th in the general classification. The Movistar Team rider was the only rider to start tomorrow's stage 18 in a different position in the classification to the one he held at the start of Wednesday's stage.

Elsewhere, Ben O'Connor maintains his 4th position, despite losing time. Thymen Arensman will remain 6th, Romain Bardet 7th, despite having his team working hard on the front of the bunch throughout the day and Filippo Zana 9th with Jan Hirt 10th, complete the top-10.