Panic over! Isaac del Toro bounces back to extend lead at 2025 Giro d'Italia with stage 17 win

Isaac del Toro has taken a thrilling win ahead ofRomain Bardet and Richard Carapaz in a thrilling finale to stage 17 at the 2025 Giro d'Italia, extending his overall race lead!

With the breakaway taking an age to form over the first 40 kilometres, Mads Pedersen was able to take maximum points at the first intermediate sprint of the day. When the break then did eventually go, a group of around 40 riders found themselves up the road including the notable names of the Maglia Ciclamino Pedersen, King of the Mountains leader Lorenzo Fortunato, Daniel Martinez, Brandon McNulty, Kaden Groves, Pello Bilbao, Georg Steinhauser, Romain Bardet, Louis Meintjes, Chris Harper and a quartet of Team Visma | Lease a Bike riders, potentially for later in the day to help a Simon Yates attack.

One man nowhere near the front of the race, however, was Juan Ayuso, out of GC contention after stage 16 and now already dropped out the back of the peloton before any of the real climbing had begun on stage 17.

As soon as the road started to rise on the Passo del Tonale, that 39-man breakaway quickly disintegrated. By the time the lead group reached the summit of the climb, 23 riders remained at the front, around three minutes clear of a peloton that was yet to spark into life.

By the time the next climb, the infamous Mortirolo, began for the break, they'd managed to add an extra minute to their lead over the peloton, but with GC attacks expected the satellite riders were still very much in play. Somewhat curiously, in the peloton behind it was Team Polti VisitMalta that had been doing the vast majority of the work throughout the day. As the Mortirolo started for the main bunch, Polti's GC hopeful Davide Piganzoli himself took to the front and immediately caused damage with the likes of Thymen Arensman and Antonio Tiberi sliding out the back of a dwindling Maglia Rosa group.

With around 7km to go of the climb, the INEOS Grenadiers then started to move towards the front of the 'peloton', a dangerous sign given what Egan Bernal had done in the day's prior. The first big attack of the Mortirolo came in the break however, as Dani Martinez launched a big acceleration, with Chris Harper bridging across shortly after.

As the breakaway summitted the climb though, that attack had been nullified and it was Alfonso Eulalio who took maximum KOM points solo ahead of Lorenzo Fortunato. In the GC group meanwhile, Richard Carapaz had made his move, dropping his main rivals Del Toro and Yates. With just 12 seconds lead at the top of the climb though, Carapaz was by no means off in the distance as he started his descent.

To try and help the situation for Carapaz, Steinhauser still up the road from the early break, waited up on the descent in order to try and help his team leader. Before Steinhauser could make much of a difference though, Carapaz was on the verge swallowed up by the chasing Maglia Rosa group. With 30km to go though, the Ecuadorian, who had been joined by Giulio Pellizzari and Einer Rubio still had 16 seconds on the likes of Del Toro and Yates. With 27km to go, Carapaz was finally brought back.

At the front of the race meanwhile, eight riders now held the lead. With 1:40 advantage over the peloton at 25km to go though, they still had their work cut out to secure a stage win between them. One rider who did have eyes on the stage however, was Tom Pidcock who had his team working hard at the front of the GC group.

When the break reached the final climb of the day, just 23 seconds separated them from the GC group behind. Sensing those behind, Romain Bardet attacked at the front. As the rest of the break behind Bardet were caught, the next big move came from Movistar Team's Einer Rubio. At the top of the climb, the Frenchman was still just about in the lead, despite Del Toro himself mounting an attack, followed closely by Carapaz.

With 5.4km to go, Bardet was caught by Del Toro and Carapaz. Simon Yates and the rest of the GC contenders meanwhile, were 11 seconds down the road, with Egan Bernal the big loser, 49 seconds down on the leaders. With around 1.5km to go, Del Toro then kicked again, gapping Carapaz and Bardet, and that proved stage winning.