Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R) revealed that he was sick and struggling to breathe on stage 17's final ascent at Passo Brocon of the Giro d'Italia on Wednesday but continued to fight to defend his fourth place overall.
Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-EasyPost) soloed to victory on stage 17 as a battle for the overall classification played out behind the German rider on the final ascent.
Maglia rosa Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) surged on the upper slopes with two kilometres to go and crossed the finish line in second place behind Steinhauser.
Pogačar finished 18 seconds ahead of a group that included his overall classification rivals: Dani Martínez (Bora-Hansgrohe), Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers), Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious), Einer Rubio (Movistar), and Romain Bardet (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL).
O'Connor was initially with this group but then struggled to hold the pace and was distanced with just under three kilometres to go. He finished in 12th place on the day but lost over a minute to Pogačar in the GC standings.
O'Connor is still fourth overall, 9:47 down on Pogačar but is 1:03 behind Thomas and only 42 seconds ahead of Tiberi.
O'Connor could be heard coughing heavily as he changed at the summit. He believes that he could be 'fighting something' when it comes to his general health but hoped it would pass before the mountainous stage 20 on Saturday.
"I was just struggling to breathe, so just fighting something, so just a bit average. It was a bit sad today. It wasn't my best," O'Connor said.
"Today was really, really hard. It's with the weather, the tricky descents and the wet roads all day made it a day where you couldn't switch off.
"Tomorrow (Thursday's flat stage to Padova), hopefully, will give the lungs a bit of a rest and be ready for the final couple of days," O'Connor added with hope and optimism.
"I'm not at my best at the moment, but hopefully, I can be good by Saturday."
Friday's stage climbs to Sappada, while Saturday's penultimate stage is 184km from Alpago to Bassano del Grappa, and the final mountain stage before the stage 21 finale in Rome includes two ascents of Monte Grappa.
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