Giro d'Italia 2008 - Stage Seventeen

The 2008 Giro d'Italia started from Palermo, southern Italy on May 10 and is held over 21 stages until June 1.

Stage 17 - May 28 Sondrio - Locarno 192km

Tinkoff's Mikhail Ignatiev had led a three man breakway - they had an eight minute lead at one point - with him being the last of the trio to be swept up just four kilometres from the line. At the line Andre Greipel led a Team High Road 1-2 - more

High Road

Andre Greipel acknowledged that his victory on stage 17 was not just a solo effort. "After the finish line, everybody in the team was delighted," said the German. "Cavendish as well. It is a team victory, one doesn't win a sprint without it being so."

Astana

Alberto Contador was happy that stage 17 hadn't been too testing a day even after it came following a rest day. It was a quiet day" he said.

"I felt well, I didn't have any allergy problems. As for the final few days? Both Riccardo Ricco (second 41sec behind) and Gilberto Simoni (third over a minute in arrears) are dangerous. But Simoni has more experience,"
added Contador, referring to the 36-year-old Simoni's two previous Giro victories.

The team used the 'rest day' to check out the Gavia and Mortirolo (Stage 20). “Gavia is impossible!” exclaimed the 2007 Tour de France winner. “They were paving the road! And the Mortirolo….incredible. I’m so glad I saw it. It will be hard,” concluded Contador.

Saunier Duval Scott

Riccardo Ricco has revealed that he was not in the best of health.

"I am a little troubled by bronchitis. Today (Wednesday), and had trouble breathing. "Last night (Tuesday), I could not sleep. I was still coughing during the stage.

"But even if it the cruel reality, I have no intention of giving up," he added defiantly."

Reflecting back to the evil stage 16 Ricco said - "I really feel happy; I believe my performance was very good. Pity I couldn´t do better, for my rear wheel slipped a bit when I decided to give out-of-the-saddle a go.I felt strong enough, but that affected all climbers alike. We all had a good stage today, as you can see all of us finished 30" or less behind Pellizotti. Congratulations to Pellizotti and Contador, who were great today. The Giro isn´t over yet - I´ll fight all the way to Milan."

Lampre

After the Plan de Corones time trial, Team Lampre slept late (Ed- They were still up and gone from the hotel by 8am!) San Vigilio di Marebbe and then traveled to Aprica on Tuesday morning.

The riders went for a 60 kms training, covering Passo del Tonale and then reaching Aprica. In the afternoon only massages and rest, in view of the last stages of Giro.

Stage 17 started in the home town of Francesco Gavazzi in Valtellina,and the rider celebrated by attacking for 120 km of lenght with Ignatiev and with Hugue

“The huge support received by my fans gave me the strength to attack – Gavazzi explained – In Lampre we had decided to enter in the breakaways and I could attack in the proper way. In the final part of the breakaway the energies were lower and lower, that’s why I could not follow Ignatiev pace. Tomorrow I will try to attack again”.
Fabrizio Bontempi, Lampre’s sport director, is satisfied: “We wanted to attack and we did it thanks to a very strong youngster such Gavazzi”.

Milram

Erik Zabel missed the podium by centimeters on stage 17 when the 37 year-old sprinted to fourth place.

"I started the sprint too far back and the last meters were too short to let me come up to the front,“ MILRAM captain Erik Zabel said. "Today the sprint started before the last curve. In this long sprint I could feel the effects of the last few stages.“

Fabio Sabatini injured his knee but continued riding with pain until leaving the race last Friday. "X-rays showed a cartilage problem. Fabio will not train for a week. Then we will see," Marlies van Gerwen said. "Our streak of injuries just doesn't seem to end. No sooner can one rider start racing again, than another has to stop.“

Things had been looking good for Dennis Menchov and Rabobank, but a poor showing on stage 16 has the team reappraising their Giro outlook.

"We had expected a little bit more," admitted Erik Breukink openly. "We had hoped for the time loss to be thirty seconds less, but he did not have such a great day."

"Denis knew what would be in store for him," said the team boss."It is a very steep climb, which is not made for Denis." Breukink was not allowed to ride behind his captain during the climb. But, according to him that did not really matter. "It is the rider who must use up every ounce of his energy, not me. When he experiences a disappointing start, you know that he could potentially lose a lot at the end."

Of the five classification riders, Menchov and Danilo Di Luca lost the most time.

Stage 17 was the right stage to take a chance, Tinkoff explained and they nearly pulled it of when Mihkail Ignatyev went clear and was only caught close to the finish. "It was very important for me do well above all for the morale" – declared Ignatyev.

Jens Voight as ever tried to make his mark on stage 17 - "It was in the cards that today's stage was to be decided in a bunch sprint so the agreement was that we would wait and try and make it in a big break. Only three guys escaped so it would've been a waste of time and effort because the sprinter teams had things under control. Jens made an attempt anyway just to test if they were worn out towards the end, but unfortunately that was not the case. On tomorrow's route there should be room for a few more attacks and of course we're gonna try our best to be there," said Team CSC sports director Kim Andersen after the stage.

Click on Map to enlarge

With Dollomites and two days of mountains on Friday and Saturday, Thursday's stage takes the riders 147km ride from the Swiss village of Mendrisio to the Italian town of Varese - the sites of the next two world championships.

The rolling terrain at the start will encourage a breakaway. Only after 42 km does it become flat and even descending. The only ranked climb is in Brinzio, at 90 km, and the peloton reaches the finish town of Varese only 25 km later.