Ben O’Connor made up for his near miss the previous day with victory on Stage 17 of the Giro d'Italia, while Joao Almeida maintained his lead in the General Classification. 

O'Connor had finished second on Tuesday, unable to haul in Jan Tratnik in the closing stages of the journey from Udine to San Daniele del Friuli. 

However, the Australian would not be denied 24 hours later, leaving the rest of the breakaway group behind with just eight kilometres to go and impressively staying clear through to the finish line. 

"Yesterday it was so close and to pull off today in the mountains, I dreamed about. It means a lot," O'Connor said after the biggest stage win of his career to date. 

On the timing of the attack, he added: "I could see everyone was struggling at the time, there was no real pace between the guys and everyone was looking at each other, I felt good again and I thought, 'Why not?'.  

"The aim was just to win and I can't believe I've done it."

Herman Pernsteiner claimed second place, 31 seconds back of the winner, while Thomas De Gendt held off the challenge of Ilnur Zakarin to take third. 

As for the maglia rosa, Almeida remains 17 seconds clear of nearest rival Wilco Kelderman after neutralising the solitary attack from Team Sunweb during the course of the 203km-ride from Bassano del Grappa to Madonna di Campiglio, a journey that included four categorised climbs.

"Today they tried, but my feeling was good," Almeida said. "I was feeling good again. But tomorrow is another day, I can have a bad one and lose everything."

 

STAGE RESULT

1. Ben O'Connor (NTT Pro Cycling) +00:07
2. Herman Pernsteiner (Bahrain-McLaren) +00:31
3. Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) +01:10
4. Ilnur Zakarin (CCC Team) +01:13
5. Kilian Frankiny (Groupama-FDJ) +01:55

CLASSIFICATION STANDINGS

General Classification  
1. Joao Almeida (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) 71:41:18
2. Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) +00:17
3. Jai Hindley (Team Sunweb) +02:58

Points Classification  
1. Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ) 221
2. Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) 184
3. Joao Almeida (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) 90

King of the Mountains  
1. Ruben Guerreiro (EF Pro Cycling) 198
2. Giovanni Visconti (Vini Zabu-KTM) 148
3. Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) 82

WHAT'S NEXT?

Stage 18 is the penultimate mountain day of this year's delayed Giro. The 207km from Pinzolo to Laghi di Cancano includes a trip up the daunting Passo dello Stelvio, while an uphill finish littered with hairpins could provide late drama.