Viviani wins fourth stage as yates retains Pink Jersey before the final big Mountain Stages

Viviani won the final sprint in the pouring rain after a hectic Stage 17 that saw numerous breakaways, splits and attacks

Punishing, that sums up one of the last flat stages that saw a huge battle between the sprinters team. Lots of of breakaway attempts were chased down, then there was rumours that Viviani had been dropped from the peloton, so Sam Bennett's Bora-hansgrohe went to the front and split the bunch. 

Behind GC favorites and contenders were caught out, including Chris Froome. However with Viviani clearly in the front group, the paced slowed and the rest of the peloton was able to bridge across.

The stage was really about the Maglia Ciclamino (the Purple Sprinter's Jersey), Viviani leading with Sam Bennett close behind.

It wans't until 80 kms had been covered that an breakaway was established incljuding; Wout Poels (Sky), Ben Hermans (Israel Cycling Academy), Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) and Alessandro De Marchi (BMC) and they built up a lead of 2 minutes.

With 20 kilometres to go, only Di Marchi and Sanchez were left until they ot reeled back in by the peloton with 11 kms to go.

Lotto NL-Jumbo set the pace, with 8 kms to go another attack by Gianluca Bambrilla (Trek-Segafredo), Robert Gesink (LottoNL-Jumbo), Zdenek Stybar (Quick-Step Floors), Sergio Henao (Sky) and Cesare Benedetti (Bora-hansgrohe) was attempted but reeled in by the increasing pace of the Sprinters teams.

Maurits Lammertink (Katusha-Alpecin) had a go with 5kms to go but was again reeled back in as Quick-Step Floors came to the front leading out Elia Viviani.

They did a good job and Viviani took his fourth victory at the 2018 Giro d'Italia. Sam Bennett (Bora-hansgrohe) and Niccolo Bonifazio (Bahrain-Merida) were second and third on the stage.

Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) maintains his 56-second lead over Sunweb's Tom Dumoulin in the general classification.

Vivian retains the Purple Points (Sprinter's) Jersey ahead of Sam Bennett with 35 points and Niccolo Bonifazio with 25 points.

VIDEO: 2018 Giro d'Italia Stage 17 Highlights

2018 Giro d'Italia Stage 17 Top 10

1 Elia Viviani (Ita) Quick-Step Floors 3:19:57 
2 Sam Bennett (Irl) Bora-Hansgrohe   
3 Niccolo Bonifazio (Ita) Bahrain-Merida   
4 Danny van Poppel (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo   
5 Jens Debusschere (Bel) Lotto Fix All   
6 Kristian Sbaragli (Ita) Israel Cycling Academy   
7 Jean-Pierre Drucker (Lux) BMC Racing Team   
8 Sacha Modolo (Ita) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale   
9 Andrea Vendrame (Ita) Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec   
10 José Gonçalves (Por) Katusha-Alpecin

2018 Giro d'Italia GC after Stage 17

1 Simon Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott 69:59:11 
2 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:00:56 
3 Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Bahrain-Merida 0:03:11 
4 Chris Froome (GBr) Team Sky 0:03:50 
5 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:04:19 
6 Rohan Dennis (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:05:04 
7 Miguel Angel Lopez (Col) Astana Pro Team 0:05:37 
8 Pello Bilbao (Spa) Astana Pro Team 0:06:02 
9 Richard Carapaz (Ecu) Movistar Team 0:06:07 
10 George Bennett (NZl) LottoNL-Jumbo 0:07:01

Don't Miss the Final Big Mountain Stages

Stages 18, 19 and 20 head into the Italian Alps and are decisive in the battle for the Pink Jersey.

Stage 18 features a Mountain top finish at Prato Nevoso at 1,600m after 196 kms of racing.

Stage 19 is the must brutal of them all, the Queen Stage, features the 1,311 m climb of Colle Del Lys, the 2,178 climb of the Colle delle Finstre, the Cima Coppi, the highest point on the race this year, halve the climb is unpaved. The riders descent very fast before hitting the climb of Sestriere at 2,053 metres before ascending down on again narrow, trecherous roads before hitting the final brutal climb of Monte Jafferau at 1,908 metres. It's this stage that could see the biggest change on the overall GC. Riders are now getting tired and if anyone has a bad day it could spell disaster for their podiums ambitions.

Stage 20 again is another hard mountain top finish. The stage begins in Susa, and ends in the Ski Resort of Cervinia, a long 214 kilometers, in terribly hard terrain. At the start of the stage is a reletively flat for 140 kilometers, before the stage turns into slaughter. The first climb, the Colle Tzecore, 16.4 km long at an average gradient of 7.5%, up to 1,617 metres. The peloton descends down to the same level to hit the second climb of the Col de Saint Pantaleon which is 16.4 km long at an average gradient of 7.4%, back up to 1,670 metres. Immediately after there is a steep fast descent before the final mountain finish up to Cervinia, which is 15.2 km long, with an average slope of 5.7%. The stage feature in total around 48 kilometers of climbing.

Stage 21 sees the race move to Rome for the big final celebrations. The GC will have already been decided on the three previous days.