Giro d'Italia 2024: Steinhauser's hussar ride! EF pro secures first German stage win
Thomas Goldmann
· 22.05.2024
Georg Steinhauser has secured the first German stage win at the Giro d'Italia 2024. The 22-year-old, who rode for EF Education EasyPost was the breakaway winner after 159 difficult kilometres between Selva di Val Gardena and the Passo Brocon. Second place went to Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), who confidently defended the pink jersey.
Georg Steinhauser already shone on the queen stage of the Giro d'Italia 2024
Steinhauser's victory had, in a way, been foreshadowed. After all, the 22-year-old had already shone on Sunday with third place on the queen stage to Livigno. And Georg Steinhauser, son of former professional cyclist Tobias Steinhauser, was also wide awake from the start on the 17th stage and initially dominated the stage in a breakaway group that broke away after the descent from the Sella Pass.
The group was caught up again by the peloton, but Steinhauser and Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier (Lidl Trek), left his rival behind on the first ascent of the Passo Brocon and finished around one and a half minutes ahead of Pogacar.
Georg Steinhauser celebrates victory on the 17th stage of the Giro d'Italia
"This is incredible! On stage 8, I already realised that I had good legs to maybe win a stage here. The queen stage was already incredible. I could already be satisfied with that. Today I already realised at the registration check that I had good legs and that I might win. I went into the breakaway at the start. It was a bit strange because we were caught up again. I tried again and it worked out," said Georg Steinhauser after his first professional victory.
His father Tobias was also very proud: "That's pure emotion. I don't begrudge him that. It was a great race. He's definitely better than his dad. He deserves it," said the former team-mate of Jan Ullrich with Eurosport. Ullrich was married to Georg Steinhauser's aunt Sara for a long time.
Giro d'Italia 2024 - Results: the top 10 of stage 17
- Georg Steinhauser (EF Education EasyPost) 4:28:51
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) +1:24
- Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) +1:42
- Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) +1:42
- Daniel Felipe Martinez (Bora-Hansgrohe) +1:42
- One Rubio (Movistar) +1:42
- Romain Bardet (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) +1:42
- Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) +1:55
- Jan Hirt (Soudal - Quick Step) +1:55
- Rafal Majka (UAE Team Emirates) +1:55
The overall standings
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 63:31:18
- Daniel Felipe Martinez (Bora-Hansgrohe) +7:42
- Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) +8:04
- Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +9:47
- Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) +10:29
- Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) +11:10
- Romain Bardet (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) +12:42
- One Rubio (Movistar) +13:33
- Filippo Zana (Team Jayco-AlUla) +13:52
- Jan Hirt (Soudal - Quick Step) +14:44
How the 17th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2024 went
There was an attack right from the start - for good reason: after all, the race went straight to the Sella Pass, which at 2244 metres was the Cima Coppi, the highest point of the Giro d'Italia 2024 after the Umbrail Pass was cancelled. Giulio Pellizzari (VF Group-Bardiani CSF - Faizane) secured this and the 50 points associated with it up there ahead of Nairo Quintana (Movistar). After the descent, a larger breakaway group formed, which initially comprised eight riders - Georg Steinhauser was also already there: Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal - Quick Step), Giulio Pellizzari (VF Group-Bardiani CSF - Faizane), Georg Steinhauser (EF Education EasyPost), Marco Frigo (Israel-Premier Tech), Damiano Caruso (Bahrain-Victorious), Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier (Lidl-Trek) and Davide Ballerini (Astana Qazaqstan Team) initially formed the front of the race. On the climb to the Passo Rolle, Nicola Conci (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Attila Valter (Visma | Lease a Bike) two more drivers.
Breakaway group around Georg Steinhauser caught up again
In the peloton, UAE Team Emirates let the leading group go. However Team dsm-firmenich PostNL was unhappy with the race situation and increased the pace on the Passo Rolle, bringing the breakaway back within striking distance. On the Passo Gobbera, Bardet's men finally caught up with the leading group. Shortly before the crest, the Dutch team cancelled their attack. Apparently, Bardet did not feel able to attack after all. Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier took advantage of the favourable moment and attacked again out of the peloton. Georg Steinhauser followed and closed the gap to the man from Eritrea on the descent. At this point, there were still around 50 kilometres to go.
Behind them, Ineos Grenadiers took command of the group for the pink jersey of Tadej Pogacar, but probably only in order to ride safely from the front on the descent. On the first crossing of the Passo Brocon, the interplay in the peloton continued. First dsm-firmenich PostNL took the lead again, then briefly Soudal - Quick Step, before UAE Team Emirates took over again. Simon Geschke (Cofidis) tried again with an attack, but couldn't get away.
Georg Steinhauser outpaces Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier
Meanwhile, Steinhauser shook off Ghebreigzabhier at the front and went solo on the last slippery descent of the day. The 22-year-old mastered this without any problems and took a lead of around three minutes on the Pogacar group into the final climb.
It was almost twelve kilometres uphill again for the youngster, who did his thing at the front. Ineos Grenadiers set a certain pace in the peloton. However, the Brits didn't make up any time on the German at first.
Tadej Pogacar outpaces the competition on the 17th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2024
It was only when Daniel Felipe Martinez (Bora-Hansgrohe) attacked that Steinhauser's lead slowly began to melt away. However, the Colombian was unable to break away from the competition. As a result, Tadej Pogacar took over the pace work himself and rode away from his opponents.
However, it was already too late to catch up with Steinhauser. The EF Education EasyPost pro was able to savour his first victory as a professional cyclist as a soloist.
