Giro d’Italia: Geraint Thomas missing his best legs as he marks Dani Martínez and distances Ben O’Connor

Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) matched GC rival Dani Martínez (Bora-Hansgrohe) on stage 17 of the Giro d’Italia to keep his hopes of finishing on the podium in Rome this Sunday alive. The pair were part of a reduced group that hit the slopes of the final climb of the Passo Brocon and then splintered in the final few kilometres as race leader Tadej Pogačar coasted clear to put even more time into his rivals.

On the lower slopes of the climb Ineos Grenadiers set a brisk tempo that snapped the elastic for fourth-placed Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), but when Martínez went on the offensive Thomas was forced to respond.

The former Tour de France winner was able to catch the Colombian and together they finished in a group that contained Antonio Tiberi, Romain Bardet and Einer Rubio. Meanwhile, O'Connor lost 41 seconds.

Pogačar finished second on the stage behind breakaway winner Georg Steinhauser, and now leads the race from Martinez by 7:42. Thomas remains in third at 8:04, while O’Connor has drifted to 9:47.

Read more: The GC standings at the Giro d'Italia

“We tried to set a good pace at the bottom and try and set up an attack but I didn’t quite have the legs to go and was on a par with Dani and a few of the other boys but I was good, and the team and everyone rode really well,” Thomas said at the finish.

When asked what he felt when Martínez attacked him and the rest of the GC group, Thomas responded:

“I was happy for it, to try and maybe go over the top but I didn’t really have the legs to do that. I would have liked to have gone with Pogačar, [but] I was already starting to feel the legs. It was the story of the race really, let him go ahead and race behind. It’s how we’ve been riding the whole race really, it’s just a shame that Pogačar is as good as he is,” he added.

While Thomas’ podium place took another step forward, Thymen Arensman lost time on the GC after setting the pace for his teammate on the final climb. The Dutch rider remains in sixth overall but was used as a super domestique, unlike on stage 16, when he was allowed to race at his own pace and ended up putting time into his teammate. Ineos are now determined to distance O’Connor and use Arensman to do so.

“It was full gas. We had some numbers there but nobody wanted to take it up. We were on the front and we set a nice pace. I know that Geraint likes a hard pace, so I set one," Arensman told GCN and Eurosport at the finish.

"Then I heard that O’Connor was dropping and our priority here is to get the podium with Geraint. So I just emptied myself to make the gap as big as possible. This was a good step towards the podium for Geraint and I’m happy I was able to help him with that."

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