The streak of second place finishes continues for Giacomo Nizzolo in the Giro d’Italia but for Wednesday’s stage 17 there was at least a consolation prize as he grabbed the lead in the maglia rossa. 

Sacha Modolo (Lampre Merida) won the sprint, as Nizzolo - unable to find room in the final 500 meters - settled for his 6th second place finish counting back through last year, the elusive win still slipping his grasp.

“Today it was really an important stage for us because I have been feeling pretty good,“explained Nizzolo shortly after the stage had finished. “To be honest in the first part of the race I still felt the stage of yesterday, but then in the end I was feeling strong and unluckily Viviani closed me a little bit, but okay that’s the sprint, and I don’t complain about that. I am just sorry because no doubt today I think I was the strongest in the sprint.”

The finale for the short 134-kilometer stage was a tricky succession of up then downs and dicey turns, perfect for late attacks by opportunists, and hard for sprint teams to control.

In the last five kilometers the punchers punched, and it took a hard pull from Fabio Felline with Nizzolo glued to his wheel to bring the bunch together again with just over one kilometer to go.  Felline pulled off leaving Nizzolo to free-lance the final kilometer and he quickly jumped on the Lampre-Merida train.

Felline explained the last kilometers: “The team worked well together until the last five kilometers where Boy [van Poppel] and Eugenio [Alafaci] had some problems on the last climb. But for the finale me and Giacomo were together. [Luca] Paolini attacked on the downhill and I know him so when I saw he had 100meters I thought, ‘no, I don’t wait even one second,’ and I started to pull.

“I was no longer able to help in the sprint after that, but what was more important was to make sure that Giacomo was in condition to sprint. Giacomo was unlucky to be closed by Viviani in the end, but that’s cycling. But what’s more important is we have the [points] jersey and I think the whole team is excited about this. The last stage in Milan now will be very important and we will see.”

Sitting in what appeared good position at first, soon disappeared when Nizzolo was blocked and could not find space to begin his sprint; when the door finally opened there was not enough real estate left to overtake Modolo, who benefitted from a textbook leadout from his team to snatch his second win.

Nizzolo’s second place finish awarded him a trip to the podium as he overtook Elia Viviani (Sky) in the points competition. Nizzolo now leads with 159 points over  Modolo (142) while the former red jersey of Viviani slipped to third (134).

The points competition may see some action with the intermediate sprints over the next days, but will likely be on hold for the finishes with three successive stages in the mountains. The action will heat up again for the final flat and ceremonial stage into Milan, one last chance for Nizzolo to break the runner-up curse and secure the red jersey at the same time. It would be a sweet ending for Trek Factory Racing after three near misses in this year's Giro.