A decade after he made his WorldTour debut with Tinkoff-Saxo and in his 12th Grand Tour appearance, Michael Valgren claimed his first ever Grand Tour stage on Wednesday's stage 17 of the Giro d'Italia.
The 34-year-old Dane attacked the leading breakaway group with a kilometer to go and held on to win in Andalo, crossing the line holding what appeared to be a green Poké Ball that he later said was a good luck charm made for his son. Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility) settled for runner-up honors on the day with Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) taking third.
Race leader Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and the rest of the GC favorites arrived just over five minutes behind Valgren with most of the major protagonists finishing on the same time, although Caruso's day in the break propelled him from 13th into ninth overall.
[race_result id=13 stage_id=89982 count=5 gc=0 year=2026]
[race_result id=13 stage_id=89982 count=5 gc=5 year=2026]
How it happened
- The peloton rolled out from Cassano d'Adda for another hot day of racing in northern Italy, where the up-and-down profile had the breakaway hopefuls champing at the bit from the very start. After a flurry of attacks and counter-attacks, Valgren and Leknessund were among the handful of riders in the first move that actually stuck about a half hour into the stage.
- Their group built a small advantage over the peloton but the gap was still small enough to inspire other breakaway hopefuls to try to bridge up to them. The lead group grew slightly with a few new additions on the day's first categorized climb while Caruso and other notables like Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), and Movistar's Einer Rubio and Enric Mas worked together in a chasing group behind them.
- Those chasers gradually closed down the advantage and they had nearly made the catch when Rémi Cavagna (Groupama-FDJ United) attacked off the front on the second categorized climb of the day. A little ways behind him, the two groups came together to form a new group of almost 30 riders, while a few minutes behind that, a Visma-led peloton was content to let the gap to the escapees grow.
- Cavagna's gap to the rest of the breakaway riders grew to two and a half minutes before the chasers raised the tempo as rain began to fall on the race. With 65 km to go, the riders hit an uncategorized ascent topped by an intermediate sprint that would have the full attention of points jersey hopeful Narváez. The gap to Cavanga shrank quickly on the approach and he was caught before the top.
- Narváez led the way across the sprint line, earning enough points to take over the maglia ciclamino and even getting a small gap with Ciccone and Fabio van den Bossche (Soudal-Quick Step). They were soon caught but the action was only just beginning as attacks started to fly.
- Juan Pedro López (Movistar) and Caruso spurred a move with a little over 40 km to race and Valgren and Gianmarco Garofoli (Soudal-Quick Step) went with them. They were soon joined by Leknessund as the rest of the breakaway riders tried desperately to bring them back, and for the next few minutes the attacks and counterattacks saw the new lead group grow as a handful of others caught on.
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