Impressive power numbers show the huge effort behind Pierre Rolland's Giro d'Italia stage win

Pierre Rolland's victory on stage 17 of the Giro d'Italia ended Cannondale-Drapac's two year wait for a Grand Tour victory, with the French rider going about it the hard way in a long breakaway in the final week of the race.

Cannondale team principal Jonathan Vaughters gave a glimpse at Rolland's stats on Twitter, with data from his Training Peaks file showing a normalised power of 332 watts and 5,793kcal burned during the nearly six hour stage.

The hardest part of the ride came when Rolland attacked with seven kilometres to go on the way to Canazei, with Vaughters saying that his rider averaged 44o watts for the last 12 minutes of the 219km stage.

Velon, which has been keeping track of riders' essential data during this Giro d'Italia, also gave an insight into the effort of other riders in the breakaway.

Watch: Giro d'Italia stage 17 highlights

The second category Aprica climb was tackled almost straight from the gun, meaning most riders were on their turbo trainers before the start of the stage to warm up for immediate hard efforts.

Tejay Van Garderen (BMC Racing) was one of a large number of riders in a group chasing three leaders on the climb, where he averaged 445 watts for the 5-36 effort.

That chasing group was then whittled down on the Govia climb midway through the stage, where Gorka Izagirre (Movistar) put in a couple of digs, averaging 474 watts for 1-15 in his first attack, and 485 watts for 51 seconds in the second.

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With Rolland escaping up the road, Izagirre was among those sprinting for the minor placings, averaging 664 watts for his 28 second finishing effort, reaching a maximum speed of 70.9kmh, and a five second peak power of 854 watts.

For a number of strong amateur riders these numbers might not seem too far beyond their own abilities, but it's worth bearing in mind that Rolland and co. are producing these power figures at the end of a 219km stage, after two-and-a-half weeks of hard racing.