Giro d'Italia 2026 stage 17 preview, profiles, favourites & predictions - Breakaway bingo on Alpine roller-coaster stage

The 2026 Giro d'Italia will take place from the 8th to the 31st of May. It is the first Grand Tour of the season, and 21 stages will take the riders through many of Italy's iconic cities, the mythical Alps, and many treacherous stages - each one can end the climber's chances of winning. We preview stage 17, which is expected to start and finish at 12:00 and 17:05CET.

An odd stage, one for the breakaway to certainly succeed in, however with a flat start. The Giro has designed another stage suited to the breakway specialists, the classics riders and puncheurs, whilst some climbers can also be in the mix.

It is a stage that features 55 pan-flat kilometers at its start, and is then packed with small climbs, despite being inserted in the middle of the Alps. There is no climb that is overly long or steep, meaning you can make differences, but the race is to be made on the valley roads inbetween.

The GC riders can't make the difference on these roads and a sprint isn't realistic. In the third week, many are looking to save their race and can do so here with plenty of their cards. The final hours of racing feature several rolling climbs and a mostly uphill trajectory.

Then, the Red Bull Kilometer is on a difficult climb with 15 kilometers to go, uncategorized yet one where differences can be made. In total, that one ends with 10Km to go and is 8.3 kilometers long at 3.6%.

The riders reach Andalo, descend from it, and then climb back up to it. A very fast approach to the final 2 kilometers which feature a hilltop finish, which is 2.3 kilometers long at 6.8%.

In the GC fight, this isn't terrain to win time, but you still need good legs to prevent losing seconds in the finish - which could also be interpreted as blood in the water for any rider's rivals ahead of key days in the race.

200 kilometers on the menu, two key mountain stages laying ahead and a Visma that has absolutely no interesting in chasing - with four stage wins, including one in pink; and the pink jersey safely on their shoulders. The finale is hard, but not hard enough to make differences. Hence, there is no team that will want to chase on a day like this, packed with small climbs and long valley roads which are fatigue-inducing.

The breakaway will succeed, with 99% chance. The GC men will want to stay safe, and maybe we could see an attack from an Afonso Eulálio on the final climb due to its explosivity - don't be surprised, the man is in form.

But the stage win is up front, have no doubts. The men that attack at the start of the day will be the ones in contention for the stage win, but making it into the break won't be easy. Much like the stage into Verbania, the pan-flat start makes it quite tricky. Yes, a few teams can pace and then let their climbers form a break on the first climb, but there's one whole hour of racing until then. Most likely a few men can go up the road; and their teams have the option to then tampon the peloton and not let anyone else go up the road. So we might have a mixed group including rouleurs, climbers, classics specialists... Even a Paul Magnier who will want points for the maglia ciclamino battle.

But the men to watch out for are, above all, those with great form and momentum - we're now on week 3 of the Giro, and we know who they are. On the climbers side we have the likes of Giulio Ciccone, Einer Rubio, Enric Mas, Jan Hirt, Markel Beloki, Filippo Zana, Gianmarco Garofoli, Igor Arrieta... BORA have Aleksandr Vlasov and we have to think of Giulio Pellizzari, a great climber but now out of the GC mix and suddenly with freedom.

We might have an interesting sub-plot which is the GC fight. Everyone knows this is a breakaway day, so some riders can try and sneak into the group and try to gain minutes from it, perhaps jump into the Top10 whilst also chasing a win. Damiano Caruso, David de la Cruz, Gregor Muhlberger and Johannes Kulset are all valid contenders in this sense.

Classics specialists can be the main favourites here, putting forward men like Jhonatan Narváez and Jan Christen of UAE; Diego Ulissi, Alberto Bettiol and Guillermo Thomas Silva of Astana; Michael Valgren, Matteo Sobrero and Andreas Leknessund are all worthy of a mention.

Rouleurs also cannot be excluded from this fight. Even if the finale is tough, it's not one for the pure climbers, and the stage's flat start and many flat roads in its second half does allow for early attacks to build solid gaps (the so-called 'fuga de la fuga'). Jasper Stuyven, Lorenzo Milesi or Magnus Sheffield.

*** Giulio Ciccone, Jhonatan Narváez

** Jan Christen, Andreas Leknessund, Einer Rubio, Guillermo Thomas Silva

* Jonas Vingegaard, Enric Mas, Igor Arrieta, Aleksandr Vlasov, Damiano Caruso, Alberto Bettiol, Diego Ulissi, Michael Valgren, Matteo Sobrero, Jasper Stuyven, Lorenzo Milesi, Magnus Sheffield

Pick: Jhonatan Narváez

How: I'm going to go with the brain on this one: Narváez getting into the breakaway on the first climb of the day and then taking a small group sprint win at the finish.