As the Giro d’Italia headed into the Dolomites for stage 17, Team Sunweb’s Tom Dumoulin (NED) retains his lead in the overall standings.
In a day that favoured the breakaway, stage 17 saw a group of 25 riders go through to the finish. With the general classification contenders happy to give the break some glory, Team Sunweb were tasked with the job of controlling their advantage to ensure the Maglia Rosa stayed on the shoulders of Dumoulin. As the breakaway conquered, the efforts of Team Sunweb in the chase sees Dumoulin retain his lead in the overall by 31 seconds.
After the stage Dumoulin said: “We weren’t too worried today, we needed to chase harder than we had expected but we also knew that it was in a lot of other teams best interest to chase with us.
The team did a really good job to protect the jersey and were on the front all day chasing the break. Overall it was a good day and we look forward to another good day tomorrow.”
Team Sunweb coach Aike Visbeek (NED) added: “Today was a hard day. We tried to stay in control of the situation with the break and the guys did a good job defending the jersey. The team brought Tom to the finish safe and with as much energy reserved as possible for what is set to be a tough day tomorrow.”
