Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors) claimed his fourth win at the 2018 Giro d'Italia with a sprint victory in Franciacorta on stage 17. The rain had soaked the roads in the final kilometre, but the Italian didn't hold anything back on the slick roads as he beat Sam Bennett (Bora-Hansgrohe) with Niccolo Bonifazio (Bahrain-Merida) in third place. Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) finished safely in the pack to maintain his lead in the overall classification. Before the day began, there was some discussion as to whether stage 16 would end in a bunch gallop or a breakaway win. Most expected that it would be left to the fast men to duke it out but they were left in little doubt with a concerted effort from the Bora-Hansgrohe team stopping any breakaway building a real advantage on the bunch behind.ADVERTISEMENT Unlike previous sprint stages, Quick-Step Floors played it quietly and stayed off the front for most of the day, while Viviani sat in the group trying to conserve his energy. Aside from a couple of breakaway attempts from Zdenek Stybar, the Belgian team only moved to the front inside the final two kilometres. Danny van Poppel (LottoNL-Jumbo) was the first to launch his sprint, under the torrential rain that doused the finish line, but Fabio Sabatini dispatched Viviani perfectly, and the Italian had a clean run to the line. Viviani's win puts him equal with his teammate Fernando Gaviria, who also took four stages at last year's Giro d'Italia. How it happened The final week of the Giro d'Italia continued with a 155-kilometre stage from Riva del Garda to Iseo. It would be another picturesque day out, not that the riders would have time to admire it. With a climb from kilometre zero, and many taking the time trial as a second rest day, stage 17 was always going to be a challenging stage, but few could have predicted just how challenging it would be.
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