
Photo Credit: Cor Vos
After yesterday’s rest day, the peloton were back in action once again as the final week of racing at the Giro d’Italia began this afternoon with a challenging 193 kilometres in the saddle and the summit finish at Sega di Ala.
It was a fast start to the stage with the opening 60 kilometres mostly downhill. The team worked well to cover any dangerous moves, bringing back a counter attack that had went off in pursuit of the large breakaway group.
With other teams taking control of the peloton, the race sped towards the Passo di San Valentino, where the team did brilliantly, moving up in unison towards the front of the bunch as the gradient increased. A strong pace was set and over the top of the ascent, Romain Bardet, Michael Storer and Nicholas Roche were in the reduced GC group. The pace remained high as the peloton made its way onto the ascent to the line – Sega di Ala with its almost ten percent average gradient for 12 kilometres.
It became a race of attrition as a strong tempo was set on the stinging gradients. Bardet dug deep as others were dropped but he too had to let go of the wheels as to not go too far into the red at five kilometres to go. With the help of Storer, the duo fought hard all the way to the line together, where Bardet ended the stage in 14th position, a result that sees him move up to sixth place on GC for the team.
Pos. | Rider | Team | Time | Points |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | MARTIN Dan | Israel Start-Up Nation | 4:54:38 | 100 |
2 | ALMEIDA João | Deceuninck - Quick Step | 0:13 | 40 |
3 | YATES Simon | Team BikeExchange | 0:30 | 20 |
14 | BARDET Romain | Team DSM | 2:52 | - |
16 | STORER Michael | Team DSM | 3:05 | - |
41 | ROCHE Nicolas | Team DSM | 16:30 | - |
51 | HAMILTON Chris | Team DSM | 19:09 | - |
67 | ARNDT Nikias | Team DSM | 24:38 | - |
112 | DENZ Nico | Team DSM | 34:01 | - |
115 | KANTER Max | Team DSM | 35:34 | - |