CASSANO D’ADDA: IAM Cycling’s Roger Kluge snatched victory in the Giro D’Italia 17th stage on Wednesday, giving the Swiss team its first Grand Tour stage win in the week it announced it would close down at the end of the season.

German Kluge, 30, powered past Pippo Pozzato in a last-ditch attack and held off the peloton in an all-out sprint in the final km to finish ahead of Italy’s Giacomo Nizzolo on the 196km stage from Molveno to Cassano d’Adda.

Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo), one of the favourites to win the largely sprint-friendly stage, edged Germany’s Nikas Arndt (Giant-Alpecin) into third place.

Dutchman Steven Kruijswijk (Lotto NL-Jumbo) finished in the main pack and kept hold of the pink jersey while maintaining a three-minute advantage over his nearest challenger, Colombia’s Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEDGE), with four days left.

Klose is the third German to win a stage at this year’s Giro, after Andre Greipel and Marcel Kittel, although his team IAM Cycling announced on Monday that they would close down after this season as they had failed to find a co-sponsor.

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2016