Rolland wins Stage 17 with breakaway masterclass, Dumoulin retains pink

Rolland's victory was his first since joining Cannondale–Drapac last season and the American team's first Grand Tour stage victory since Davide Formolo struck gold in La Spezia on the 2015 Giro. Rolland also became the first Frenchman to taste victory in this year’s race and the only active French rider with stage wins on both the Giro and Tour de France.

Part of an early three-man break that went right from the gun in the lumpy 219km stage from Tirano to Canazei, Rolland dropped back to join team-mate Michael Woods in a large chasing group on the second of three categorised climbs. The experienced 30-year-old stayed in contention during a feisty final third of the stage, making the important selection before putting in his decisive attack inside the final 10km.

An inspired Rolland rolled home 24 seconds ahead of his pursuers, who were led over the line by Portugal's former world champion, Rui Costa of UAE Team Emirates. Canadian Woods was among the chasing dozen on a day that Cannondale’s persistent aggression finally paid off.

Race leader Tom Dumoulin (Team Sunweb) came home in a peloton that included all the big favourites the best part of eight minutes in arrears. With just four stages of the 100th edition of the Giro d'Italia remaining, the Dutchman retains the maglia rosa by a gap of 31sec over Colombian Nairo Quintana (Movistar).

Slovenia’s Jan Polanc – one of four UAE Team Emirates riders, alongside Costa, in the day’s break, who at one point was the virtual pink jersey on the road – made the biggest gains on GC, rising to tenth place, 6min 33sec behind Dumoulin.

After Tuesday’s queen stage and the double ascent of the Stelvio, those looking for a recovery ride before Thursday’s fireworks in the Dolomites were much mistaken.

Although the 219km ride from Tirano in Lombardia to Canazei in Trentino featured just the three lower-category climbs, three-and-a-half-thousand metres of climbing were on the agenda for the weary peloton in a gruelling stage that featured practically no sections of flat.

Rolland joined Russian veteran Pavel Brutt (Gazprom-Rusvelo) and Slovenian tyro Matej Mohoric (UAE Team Emirates) in an early move from kilometre-zero – the trio cresting the summit of the Cat.2 climb to Aprica with 1min 50sec over a large chasing pack that extricated itself from the Sunweb-led peloton.

With a strong chasing group of 40 riders forming behind, Rolland, perhaps sensing that the day was still long, took his foot off the gas and dropped back on the descent of the second climb of the day, the Cat.2 Passo del Tonale.

Having ridden clear on the descent, Mohoric was rejoined by Brutt ahead of the third climb of the day where, with 83km remaining, the Russian hit the wall spectacularly – leaving the 22-year-old Slovenian to ride clear.

Despite those three categorised climbs in the bag, the riders still faced a vertical gain of over 800m in the final third of the stage as the peloton finally stirred into action with the deficit rising to more than 13 minutes.

UAE Team Emirates seemed to hold all the aces as Costa, Polanc and Valerio Conti rode prominently in the chase group of 40 riders – which trailed lone leader Mohoric by a couple of minutes before splintering on the uphill gradient.

Polanc – winner of stage four at Etna – was the cause of the peloton’s concern: the Slovenian a clear threat to the white jersey of Bob Jungels. The Luxembourg national champion’s Quick-Step Floors team-mates started to help share chasing duties with Dumoulin’s Sunweb and the LottoNL-Jumbo team of Steven Kruijswijk – his own top ten position under threat – as the gap started to come down accordingly.

After a succession of attacks following Mohoric’s capture, a new leading group of 25 riders formed inside the final 30km before UAE Team Emirates tried to exploit their strength in numbers. Conti, twice, Costa and Polanc all put in big attacks before Belgian Dries Devenyns (Quick-Step) made a couple of accelerations inside the final 10km.

Rolland then took advantage of a brief lull to put in his decisive attack – a move which, for once, was not picked up by any of the battling escapees. With 5km remaining, the Frenchman’s lead was up to 30 seconds as Woods covered the attacks from behind – including one last-ditch attempt from the American Tejay Van Garderen of BMC.

His win assured, Rolland could milk the applause as he rode up the home straight before lifting his Cannondale bike above his head once he had crossed the line and secured his first major win since 2012.

Polanc was dropped in the final kilometres but finished in a group 2min 14sec down on Rolland to rise three places to 10th on GC at the expense of Britain’s Adam Yates of Orica-Scott.

Italy’s Eros Capecchi (Quick-Step Floors) led the pack home 7min 54sec in arrears to ensure that team-mate Jungels retained his white jersey by 1min 58sec over Polanc. After his well-documented stomach problems in the previous stage, Dumoulin benefitted from a comparatively calm day in the saddle ahead of Thursday’s showpiece stage in the Dolomites.

Matej Mohoric may have ridden for just over 200km before tailing off, but the Slovenian youngster had nothing to show for his efforts – not even a stage win from one of his much-fancied UAE Team Emirates team-mates.

Pierre Rolland, on the other hand, played his hand perfectly – getting into the first break, easing up when the situation on the road changed, before expertly sticking in contention and then picking his moment with panache. And anyone who reduces Juan Antonio Flecha to tears must be worth more than a pat on the back…

“I’m just so happy,” an ecstatic Rolland told Eurosport. “I’ve waited for this moment for such a long time. In 2015 I finished second in a Tour de France stage, and last year was just a year to forget for me – I crashed twice in the Tour. It’s been a long wait. I’ve worked so hard this winter with Jonathan Vaughters, my new coach. My winter was so, so hard, and now I’ve won because of my work.

“Today I thought ‘Ok, yesterday was a super hard stage and everyone is completely tired’. Sometimes after a hard stage I go from the start, but I didn’t think there’d be just three of us. I took the first climb easy, the second climb easy, then waited for the big group.

“Those big groups are never easy to manage – they’re like a big lottery. At the end everyone is dead, you follow attacks, again, again, again. One moment I went, I had my teammate Michael Woods back there for the sprint if it came back. With 1km to go I knew I’d won, and I’m just so happy, it’s difficult to explain.”

Just 137km long but featuring three peaks in excess of two-thousand metres, the short but fiendishly sharp Stage 18 from Moena to Ortisei/St Ulrich is a celebration of the Dolomites and includes the famous Passo Pordoi and Passo Gardena.

Over five categorised climbs the GC favourites will do battle and Tom Dumoulin may face his sternest test yet as Nairo Quintana and defending champion Vincenzo Nibali continue their bid to prise the maglia rosa from the rangy Dutchman’s shoulders.