Trentin claims third Tour de France stage win of his career
Mitchelton-Scott's comeback from the dashing of their general classification hopes in this year's Tour de France showed no sign of letting up on Wednesday as Matteo Trentin claimed the Australian team's fourth win of the race and third in a week on stage 17 with a solo break to Gap.
Before the Pyrenees the team had already celebrated South African Daryl Impey's win from a break in Saint-Etienne. But the subsequent collapse of Adam Yates' GC bid was also preceded and followed by two stage victories for his brother and teammate Simon in the mountains. Then on Wednesday's stage 17 it was Trentin's turn to shine.
The Italian had played an important role in softening up the opposition for Simon on his first Pyrenean stage. But in Gap, Trentin was able to claim his third Tour de France win after victories in 2014 and 2015 and his eighth Grand Tour stage of this career in his own right, too.
"We had already got already two victories before Adam went out of GC," Trentin told reporters. "So we were already on a good path.
"Then straightaway after Adam lost time we all sat together on the team bus and agreed that it's not over. None of my teammates had come to the Tour in poor condition, we had lots of riders who could go for stage wins and I think we came back from a difficult situation in a really good way."
It wasn't just Mitchelton-Scott. For Trentin, too, his stage win in the Tour represented a kind of comeback after a year that started off well with stage wins in Andalucia and Valencia, but then seemed to circle 'round the bullseye in the Classics, including a 10th place in Milano-Sanremo and Amstel Gold, without ever hitting the target full on.
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