Ireland's Dan Martin completed a hat-trick of grand tour victories when he prevailed in the 17th stage of the Giro d'Italia as overall leader Egan Bernal showed his first sign of weakness on Wednesday.
Israel Start Up Nation rider Martin led from the breakaway in the 193-km mountain ride from Canazei to Sega di Ala, ahead of Portugal's Joao Almeida (Deceuninck-Quick Step) and Briton Simon Yates (Team Bike Exchange), who came in second and third, 13 and 30 seconds off the pace respectively.
Yates attacked the group of top contenders with four kilometres left in the 11.2-km ascent, at an average gradient of 9.8 per cent, to Sega di Ala, and Bernal followed easily before suddenly coming almost to a halt a kilometre further up.
Paced by his Ineos Grenadiers team mate Dani Martinez of Colombia, Bernal recovered to limit his losses as he crossed the line in seventh place, 53 seconds behind Yates.
Martin had just held off Almeida to add to his 2013 and 2018 stage wins on the Tour de France and his 2020 stage victory on the Vuelta.
