On the last few metres, Valgren fumbled a small green object out of his back pocket, which he held up at the finish line. It was a lucky charm that his son had given him. It served its purpose.

"I had this Pokémon in my pocket as a lucky charm," said the 34-year-old in the winner's interview. "I thought I was too slow to win a sprint, so I made my move. It was a strange day with a big group at the front. It was tough at the end. I was really on the limit. I was afraid I was going to crash. Luckily the race wasn't 500 metres longer. I was still missing a Grand Tour stage on my CV. I think I deserved it."

Leknessund second for the third time

Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility) could also have used a small helper. The Norwegian finished second behind Valgren - for the third time in the course of this tour. He also found a champion on the breakaway stages to Fermo and Verbania. In Andalo after 202 kilometres it was now Valgren. Third place went to Damiano Caruso (Bahrain - Victoriuous), who relegated Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe) to fourth place in his last Giro.

The peloton, with all the favourites for the classification, reached the day's finish more than five minutes behind the winner. Caruso finished in the top 10 in ninth place overall, but nothing happened further ahead. Valgren's compatriot Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) defended the pink jersey without any problems ahead of Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM), Thymen Arensman (Netcompany INEOS) and Jai Hindley (Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe).

Giro d'Italia 2026 - Results of the 17th stage

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How the 17th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2026 went

The expected big battle for the breakaway group started early with a trio, but then dragged on until the middle of the stage. Madis Mihkels (EF Education - EasyPost), Nick Schultz (NSN Pro Cycling Team) and Johan Jacobs (Groupama - FDJ United) formed the front for the first 30 kilometres, but were never allowed to get far away.

After that, the groups got bigger. First a septet around Leknessund, Jan Christen (UAE Team Emirates - XRG) and Remi Cavagna (Groupama - FDJ United) went next, six more pros mi Mick van Dijke (Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe) followed and closed the gap. At the first two mountain classifications of the day, another 18 riders came to the front. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl - Trek), Jonathan Narvaez (UAE Team Emirates - XRG), Enric Mas (Movistar Team), Vlasov and Florian Stork (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) were among them.

While the gap to the peloton quickly opened up and the rear was switched to rest mode, Cavagna tried to break away from the group as a soloist. On the flat part of the day, he built up a lead of more than two minutes. However, the Frenchman was caught again at the intermediate sprint 59 kilometres from the finish. Narvaez secured the points there and took back the Maglia Ciclamino.

A few kilometres later, Valgren, Caruso, Juan Pedro Lopez (Movistar Team), Gianmarco Garofoli (Soudal Quick-Step) and Leknessund broke away and the chasers quickly opened up the gap to half a minute on the slightly uphill terrain.

Preliminary decision is only made under the devil's lobe

Towards the Red Bull kilometre, there was a lot of jumping, and the leaders kept regrouping. One Rubio (Movistar Team) teamed up with Valgren, Caruso, Vlasov, Igor Arrieta (UAE Team Emirates - XRG) and again Leknessund took up the chase. The rest had withdrawn from the fight for the stage win. At the highest point of the day, ten kilometres before the finish, there were ten seconds between the groups.

The gap widened a little further on the descent. And even on the counter-climb, the chasers were initially unable to close the gap. Arrieta then set off on a solo, but just before the Spaniard had closed the gap, Rubio pushed again. Nevertheless, he managed to come back 2.3 kilometres before the finish. And the other three chasers were also back in the lead 1800 metres before the finish.

A further increase in speed fizzled out before Valgren went for the final hurrah. He launched his attack just below the Devil's Lap as the terrain levelled out. For a moment there was a standstill behind him - long enough for the Dane to pull out a sufficient lead. Although Leknessund followed up, it was only enough for second place.