It was a bold move with 2,8 km to go. Team Katusha’s Luca Paolini single-handedly chased down a two-man break in the closing kilometers and once the catch was made, continued to speed by them to make a bold move of his own close to the finish line in Lugano for the Giro d’Italia’s stage 17.
The technical twists and turns played into the hands of the crafty Italian, but when the flat section opened up for the finish line, Paolini was caught and a group sprint followed with Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) earning his second stage win in the 2015 race.
Earlier three riders went clear under clear skies and brilliant sunshine for the shortest stage of the race. At 134 km, the day began in Tirano, stayed along the shores of Lake Como and eventually crossed into Switzerland for the finish. The break held their advantage until 26 km to go and once they were brought back more attacks followed. It was Luca Paolini chasing down the break that ramped up the final chase that ended in a mass sprint. Second and third places went to Trek’s Giacomo Nizzolo and Luka Mezgec of Team Giant-Alpecin. Aleksandr Porsev of Team Katusha put up a strong effort for 8th.
There was no change for the overall and Alberto Contador stayed in pink at 4.02 and 4.52 to Astana teammates Mikel Landa and Fabio Aru. Iurii Trofimov holds fifth place.
Thursday’s stage 18 will begin in Melide, Switzerland before heading back into Italy to finish in Verbania after 170 km.
Team Katusha also started the Baloise Tour of Belgium on Wednesday with an opening 6,85 km prologue stage won by Matthias Brändle of IAM Cycling. Best of Katusha Alexey Tsatevich showed the 34th time. The first road stage will be on Thursday is from Lochristi to Knokke-Heist at 178,5 km.
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