It was exactly the right reaction that the UAE camp needed to digest the difficult previous day. It seemed only a matter of time before Del Toro Rosa handed over. Already today, or not until Friday on the queen stage. The 21-year-old Mexican at least denied the former and, after three second places in the course of the tour, has now claimed his first victory in a Grand Tour. The man in pink attacked on the last climb of the day. Only Carapaz was able to follow. On the subsequent descent, the duo caught up with the last remaining breakaway rider, Bardet.

Del Toro then took a small gap of a few metres into the absolute finale, which again led slightly uphill, which Carapaz and Bardet could no longer close without slipstream, so that the man in pink was not only able to take bonuses, but also a four-second time gap on the Ecuadorian, who is now his closest pursuer, because Simon Yates (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) finished fourth in the group behind. Del Toro now has a 41-second lead over Carapaz in the overall standings and a further ten seconds on Yates.

Del Toro: "Have nothing to lose"

"I had hoped that I could win a stage in the maglia rosa," Del Toro said happily in the winner's interview. "The Giro has gone very well so far. Today I realised that I will never give up. I will always try to win. I have nothing to lose. It wasn't any easier today than yesterday. With the team, we expected that there would be some attacks on the Mortirolo. We didn't want to let all the GC riders go. I rode over to them and took it a bit easier. I then caught up with them on the descent. We had made a plan with the team that I would attack on the last small climb."

Launched by his three helpers Adam Yates, Brandon McNulty and Rafal Majka - Juan Ayuso was one of the first to be left behind immediately after the start of the stage and ultimately reached the finish a good half an hour behind his team-mates with a one-and-a-half minute lead over the last rider - Del Toro once again proved his strength at the start.

Stork once again best German

Things went less well again for Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain - Victorious). The team's actual captain ran into problems early on the Mortirolo and finished ten minutes behind, which left him well outside the top 10 in the overall standings. Once again, former champion Damiano Caruso had to pull the coals out of the fire. The 37-year-old finished in a group with Yates, Giulio Pellizzari (Red BUll - BORA - hansgrohe), Derek Gee (Israel - Premier Tech) and Einer Rubio (Movistar Team). With Tiberi and Michael Storer (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) dropping back, a second Colombian moved into the top 10 alongside Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers), who lost a little more time.

The best German was once again Storer helper Florian Stork. The 28-year-old also crossed the finish line with Bernal, was part of the breakaway group for a long time and was only caught on the final climb. He finished 14th, just over a minute behind. Georg Steinhauser (EF Education - EasyPost) was also part of this group, but was ordered back to support Carapaz.

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Giro d'Italia 2025 - Results of the 17th stage

This is how the 17th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2025 went

Once again, the battle for the leading group was almost fierce. On the almost continuously slightly ascending terrain up to the Pass del Tonale, the big names tried again, from Mads Pedersen (Lidl - Trek) to Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS Astana Team) and Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike), but they came just as little as everyone else. Pedersen secured the points at the intermediate sprint in Cles, but then pulled away and caused a break in the field. As on the previous day, UAE Team Emirates - XRG in particular initially proved to be hair-raisingly disorganised, with Del Toro having to master the jump to the front as a soloist. And Ayuso was already far behind early on.

After a good 30 kilometres, however, a large group of up to 50 riders formed, but there were no classification contenders in it. Instead, almost all of the German pros who were in the race were. The peloton then put their legs up and the gap opened up rapidly, quickly reaching three minutes. Nevertheless, things didn't go perfectly, the balance of power was unevenly distributed.

Carapaz attacks on the Mortirolo

At the Tonale Pass, the group was split and reduced to about half. Fortunato secured the points at the mountain classification (2nd category). With Steinhauser, Stork and Marco Brenner (Tudor Pro Cycling Team), three Germans were still in the race. The peloton crossed the pass three minutes behind. A few more riders came back on the descent, so that 24 men went into the Mortirolo together with a four-minute lead.

In the middle of the climb, Tiberi was the first top 10 rider to have problems. INEOS then increased the pace and finally dropped the Italian. Meanwhile, the breakaway's lead shrank to under three minutes. Daniel Felipe Martinez (Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe) then got too hot - he attacked five kilometres before the top of the pass. However, the majority of the group came back to the mountain classification (1st category). And it wasn't Fortunato who was in front there, but Afonso Eulalio (Bahrain - Victorious). The Portuguese rider took the lead with a few seconds on Stork, Steinhauser, Fortunato, Martinez, Bardet and McNulty.

In the group of favourites, Carapaz attacked a good kilometre before the climb after his helpers had stepped up the pace and del Toro, Yates and Bernal had problems. Gee, Rubio and Pellizzaru were also unable to hold off the Ecuadorian. In the descent, many things came together again, but Carapaz, who was supported by Steinhauser, Pellizzari and Rubio were able to save around 20 seconds.

Del Toro cleverly takes the slipstream from Carapaz

In turn, Eulalio, Bardet and Mattia Cattaneo (Soudal Quick-Step) came together at the front, while Stork and Fortunato rolled up from behind and set off together for the final 30 kilometres. But shortly afterwards there were mergers at the front and back. While the five leaders were caught by Martinez, Mathias Vacek (Lidl - Trek) and Wilco Kelderman (Visma | Lease a Bike), Carapaz and Co. were also caught by the Rosa group.

The leading group went into the final climb of the day with just under a minute, half of which was quickly used up. Then Stork tried, but Bardet attacked over it. 800 metres before the mountain classification, the Frenchman was the only one still ahead of the favourites. And then Del Toro attacked. Only Carapaz was able to follow. The duo had quickly caught Bardet with a lot of risk on the last downhill kilometres.

There was no longer any danger from behind, although the group around Yates, Gee and Pellizzari were able to minimise their gap and limit the damage. Shortly before the final kilometre, which climbed slightly again, Del Toro used the last few metres of the descent to open up a lead of three or four metres over Carapaz. And that was enough to prevent his pursuer from benefiting from the slipstream. Carapaz was no longer able to close the gap because his rival was also travelling with more ease in the final bends. As a result, Carapaz lost four seconds. He also lost six seconds through time bonuses because Bardet also passed him on the finish line.