Isaac del Toro won stage 17 of the Giro d'Italia to tighten his grip on the pink jersey in the face of more attacks from Richard Carapaz, who moved above Simon Yates into second overall.
A day after Carapaz took more than 90 seconds out of his lead to move within 31 seconds of pink, UAE Team Emirates' Del Toro responded with his first career Giro stage win, beating Carapaz to the line in Bormio by four seconds but also picking up another six in bonuses to extend his advantage.
It continued a historic Giro for del Toro, who became the first Mexican stage winner at the race in 23 years, and the fourth-youngest stage winner this century.
“It’s incredible,” del Toro, also the first Mexican to wear pink, said. “Everybody wants this [to win a stage in the leader’s jersey] and today I realised that I will never give up and I will always try, I have nothing to lose. Today was not easier than yesterday but for sure I had a better mentality.”
EF Education-EasyPost’s Carapaz, the 2019 Giro winner, had tried again to break the 21-year-old Mexican on the Mortirolo, the main climb of the 155km stage from San Michele all'Adige, with an attack near the summit.
The Ecuadorian opened up a lead of around 30 seconds on Del Toro and Yates, who started the day 26 seconds off pink in second place, but was caught again by the main favourites after the descent as they approached the short final climb of Le Motte before the descent to the finish.
And it was near the summit of Le Motte that Del Toro responded with his own attack, a move that only Carapaz could follow.
Riding together down the descent, they caught Romain Bardet - the last survivor of the day's breakaway - and would deny the Frenchman his dream of a Giro stage win to complete his Grand Tour set in his final season as a professional.
“I predicted something like this would happen, of course you don’t want to let all the GC guys go,” del Toro said. “I put a little bit of pressure on the others on the descent and then I tried to relax and recover to do the last kick on the last climb. We made this plan with the team and the team gave me the confidence to try full gas.”
With just under two kilometres to go, Del Toro was able to drop Carapaz and hold off the Ecuadorian and Bardet to answer his critics after Tuesday, with the Frenchman taking second place on the stage.
Visma-Lease a Bike's Yates finished fourth, 15 seconds down on Del Toro, to drop behind Carapaz in the general classification.
Del Toro leads overall by 41 seconds from Carapaz, who now has a 10-second advantage over Yates. Derek Gee is the only other rider within three minutes of pink, fourth at one minute and 57 seconds down.
Additional reporting by PA
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