Leopold König retained sixth place overall at the Giro d'Italia following a stage 17 sprint which saw Elia Viviani relinquish the points jersey.

König rode well up front during a technical finish into Lugano to ensure his GC holding was secure as the stage ended in a bunch sprint.

Viviani found himself boxed in and squeezed between two riders in the final metres as he prepared to open up his sprint, eventually crossing the line in 11th place.

That meant the Italian was forced to hand over the maglia rossa, with a 25-point deficit to Giacomo Nizzolo and one bunch sprint opportunity remaining in Milan.

At the finish it was Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) who prevailed to take his second victory of the race, holding off Nizzolo (Trek Factory Racing) and Luka Mezgec (Giant-Alpecin) at the finish.

With the day's break caught early at 27km to go there were inevitably some late attacks. Vasil Kiryienka and Bernhard Eisel led the line for Team Sky as the race entered Switzerland.

The overall GC picture remained unchanged, with Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) retaining a lead of 4:02 over Mikel Landa (Astana). König heads back into the mountains 9:31 back on pink, but just 1:04 off fifth-placed Yury Trofimov (Katusha).