Wednesday, October 21st – Team Bahrain McLaren stays competitive in Giro d’Italia. Hermann Pernsteiner is on the podium in stage 17 (Bassano del Grappa-Madonna di Campiglio, 203km) taking another great result for the team, after yesterday’s victory of Jan Tratnik.

The Austrian rider proved to be one of the strongest on the first big mountain stage in the third week. He was part of the 19-man breakaway of the day and then he was the only one to try to react to the late move of Ben O’Connor, attacking from the chasers and finishing in second place, just 31 seconds behind the stage winner.

Thanks to his effort, Hermann crossed the line 4’40” earlier than the GC riders and regained 4 places. He is now 11th on GC. 

“Today is one of the hardest days of this Giro. The plan was to go into the breakaway for Pello. As we had quite a big gap, the team gave me freedom to go for the stage.”

“I think I can be happy about the second place. I gave everything I could. Maybe I watched the wrong guy in the final, but O’Connor was really strong, congrats to him.”

“All in all, it was a nice day for me. The next day will be really hard again. All eyes on Pello Bilbao, I hope he can finish on the podium. We will work as a team for 100 percent.”

Franco Pellizotti, our sports director is satisfied with our performance:

“Another good stage for Team Bahrain McLaren. Hermann took a good second place, and Pello arrived with other GC contenders. I think the team did a great job. Stage 18 will be an even harder stage, we try it also tomorrow.”

Tomorrow there is an Alpine stage on the menu, including the Stelvio (Cima Coppi) and the final climb to the Laghi di Cancano.

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