Giro Jot del Giorno - Stage 17 - 5/26/2021

Team Ineos Grenadiers rider Daniel Martinez (R) encourages his teammate and maglia rosa Egan Bernal as they ride in the last ascent (Image credit: Getty Images Sport)

Egan Bernal almost blew up when he tried to follow Simon Yates's strong attack in the final kilometers of the mountain top finish at Sega di Ala on Stage 16. Bernal's teammate and fellow Colombian shepherded him to the finish to limit his losses against the Team Bike Exchange leader. Egan praised his teammate after the stage:

"Dani [Martinez] is a friend, it was very important to have him on my side today, he waited for me and gave me morale," said Bernal. "I was able to suffer a bit and I came to the finish with Caruso, who is the rider who interested me the most because he's second on GC."

Bernal wasn't the only one to lose time to Simon Yates at the end of the stage. The Briton jumped onto the podium behind Damiano Caruso of Team Bahrain Victorious, while many of their rivals lost minutes to both Bernal and Yates. Bernal and Caruso lost less than a minute to Yates, with more hard stages to come in the final week.