Pink jersey: Tadej Pogacar (Slo)
Purple jersey: Filippo Fiorelli (Ita)
Blue jersey: Tadej Pogacar (Slo)
White jersey: Cian Uijtdebroeks
How did the victory come about?
With one bone-dry attack 4.5 kilometers from the top. Majka waved goodbye and Pogacar accelerated. Ben O’Connor was able to follow Pogi’s killer pace for exactly 200 meters and then he had to let the Slovenian champion go. Daniel Felipe Martinez won the sprint in the chasing group from Geraint Thomas who took the last bonus seconds. The Slovenian is already three quarters of a minute ahead of Geraint Thomas in the standings.
This contains inserted content from a social media network that wants to write or read cookies. You have not given permission for this.
Click here to adjust your preferences
What came before? In the end we only had six kilometers of battle for the flight of the day. It looked like the peloton would opt for an easy start when Filippo Fiorelli, Christian Scaroni and co shot away. Ineos-Grenadiers agreed with that, but when one from EF Education-EasyPost flew behind, this flight was doomed.
After six kilometers even five (!) Italians left. Both the team of rosette wearer Jhonatan Narvaéz and Tadej Pogacar thought it was okay. So Christian Scaroni, Filippo Fiorelli, David Bais, Andrea Piccolo and Martin Marcellusi were out. After fifteen kilometers of racing they were already moving ahead for more than two minutes. The favorites for the overall victory thought it was quite good. But once the gap became 3’52”, Ineos-Grenadiers’ Connor Swift took the lead of the peloton to keep the break under control. The quintet had a maximum lead of 4’37”. When the lead at 100 km from the finish was 4’30”, Rui Oliveira of UAE-Team Emirates took over the chase and the teams of Pogacar and Thomas worked together. During the first two hours, the escapees recorded an average of 45.1 km per hour.
After the intermediate sprint, UAE-Team Emirates again took control. Andrea Piccolo took advantage of the relative calm after the Intergiro sprint in Crocemosso to break away in the leading group 52 km from the finish. He quickly had a half-minute lead over the escapees. While at the Oasi Zegna Fiorelli let the race run and Harrison Wood started an échappée bottle from the peloton. On the Nelva (22.6 km) he was still 1’08” ahead of Scaroni, but because Ineos-Grenadiers pushed so hard with Ganna, his lead shrank visibly. Piccoli arrived with a lead of 1’33” in Biella at the foot of Oropa. But then the UAE-Team Emirates climbing train started. After less than three kilometers uphill, the lead was halved. It was a nice attempt by Piccolo, but unfortunately peanut butter. At 6.5 km from the finish, just at the steep one and a half kilometer mark, he was done for.
This contains inserted content from a social media network that wants to write or read cookies. You have not given permission for this.
Click here to adjust your preferences
What did the favorites do?
Tadej Pogacar suffered a puncture at the front at the foot of the Oropa and slipped in the bend. Pogi escaped unscathed because his UAE-Team Emirates team car was able to brake just in time after a communal misunderstanding. Due to the delay, he had to close a time gap of 25 seconds, although it went smoothly because he was between the cars. He was back in less than two kilometers. His team was quickly exhausted on the Oropa. Novak, for example, seems to have left all his strength in Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
At 5.5 km he only had more Majka to arrange everything, but that was enough for Pogacar to join the club of riders who won at least one stage in all major tours at Oropa.
Geraint Thomas took two seconds behind Piccolo in Biella’s bonus sprint, while Filippo Gana took the remaining second. In the final sprint he had to let Daniel Felipe Martinez go ahead, but the very old Welshman is once again reaching his level.
The beaten of the day was Ben O’Connor who made the same mistake as Richard Carapaz on La Redoute in Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Anyone who tries to follow Pogacar’s pace will blow themselves up. In the end he was able to find himself somewhere, but he still had to give up 37 seconds to Thomas and Martinez who are direct competitors for second and third place. After Oropa, the Australian from Decathlon-AG2R is disappointed and has learned a lesson.
Even more painful was how Antonio Tiberi fared. After two days of the Giro, the new Italian wonder boy is in 28th place, 2’48” behind Pogacar. Good that old Damiano Caruso (16th at 1’50”) was able to limit the damage somewhat.
Thymen Arensman was a lot better than on Saturday when he was already finished on the Colle Maddalena, but the Dutchman from Ineos-Grenadiers will not play a significant role in this Giro for the final classification. Too skinny? Not in the right condition?
Nairo Quintana will also not ride a classification in this Giro. At 5.9 km from the top of the Oropa he already had to let the lead guard of the peloton move. Pogi hadn’t even accelerated yet.
Eddie Dunbar was involved in a stupid crash 63 km from the finish. Also there: Nicola Conci from Alpecin-Deceuninck, Olav Kooij (blood on the knee, right shin and elbow, among others) from Visma-Lease a Bike and Filippo Zana who previously waited for the leader of Jayco-AlUla, Dunbar. The little Irishman lost almost six minutes at Oropa. A repeat of his seventh place last year is not immediately possible. In the standings he has dived to 36th place at 6’20”
What did the Belgians do?
Cian Uijtdebroeks rose to fourth place in the standings thanks to a sublime climb on Oropa. With 54 seconds behind, he is only 9 ticks behind G who is second. In other words: the climber from Abolens emerged sublime from an opening weekend that was not exactly tailor-made for him.
Mauri Vansevenant is the second Belgian in the standings, in fifteenth place. The West Flemish also had his eye on the white jersey, but Cian Uijtdebroeks was too strong for that on Sunday. He came in fifteenth and is also fifteenth in the standings, 46 seconds behind the leader of Visma-Lease a Bike.
Edward Planckaert ensured that Kaden Groves could take three points for the maglia ciclamino in the intermediate sprint behind the five leaders in what was previously a prestige sprint.
This contains inserted content from a social media network that wants to write or read cookies. You have not given permission for this.
Click here to adjust your preferences
Tim Merlier let this cup pass him by. The next two days are important for the Wortegem-Petegem resident.
Anything else you should know?
* Filippo Fiorelli is the new points leader. He single-handedly retrieved the purple from the flight. The 29-year-old Italian already rode in the ‘maglia ciclamino’ on Sunday, but that was because Jhonatan Narvaéz found it difficult to wear two jerseys. As second in the points standings, he was therefore an occasional bearer. He was first given the 12 points from the intermediate sprint by the escapees, which meant he was already five ahead with thirty points. In addition, he won the Intergiro sprint so that he could not be caught anyway. At the finish there were only fifteen points to be earned for the winner.
* Robert Gesink became the first quitter in this Giro. The 38-year-old Dutchman from Visma-Lease a Bike, who was 38 at the end of May, suffered a fracture in his left hand in a fall 28 kilometers from the finish. That is bad news for Cian Uijtdebroeks. First there was Koen Bouwman’s illness who was replaced and now the road captain is also gone.
* Atilla Valter, Gesink’s teammate, fell to the ground more than forty kilometers from the end. Together with the American Ken Vermaerke from Team dsm-firmenich Post NL.
This contains inserted content from a social media network that wants to write or read cookies. You have not given permission for this.
Click here to adjust your preferences
* Domenico Pozzovivo fell to the ground for the second day in a row. The Italian veteran did not have a nice weekend. As a classification rider he has dropped to twentieth place, 2’31” behind Pogacar. Italian champion Simone Velasco was also involved in that fall. It was already the second collision of the day for the Italian champion.
Pogacar: “Remained calm after fall”
“This was one of my dreams,” Pogacar enjoyed in the flash interview. “I only missed that stage in the Giro. That always stuck in my mind. Winning in all three Grand Tours is something not many riders have been able to do. It’s something big, in the race. I am very happy with it.”
Pogacar did not receive the stage victory on a silver platter, because at the foot of the final climb he crashed into the asphalt after a flat tire. “I wasn’t really scared. I stayed pretty calm. I hit a hole in the city. My tire deflated super fast. Afterwards there was some confusion: I wanted to stop before the bend, but the team leader told me not to do it until afterwards. I was a little confused, and I fell. But it was nothing serious. I felt good, and the team was super strong today. They quickly brought me back to the front. And then we could ride the pace we wanted. That was perfect.”
On the final climb, Pogacar attacked when, just like yesterday, he was in danger of falling without teammates. “I wanted to go between 4.5 and 3.5 kilometers before the finish anyway. I didn’t know the climb well, nor did my teammates. It was difficult to say where to ride at what pace. But I think we did really well today. Rafal Majka’s last header on the difficult stretch was very good for my attack.”
Pogacar won with a lead of 27 seconds, and already has a three-quarters of a minute margin over his first pursuers in the general classification. “I just wanted to win today. And make a bit of a difference. Testing the legs a bit. It was my dream to get pink. Now that I have done that, me and the team can relax a bit in the coming days and try to get through the sprint stages safely.”
Tags: pink Tadej Pogacar outpaces opposition Oropa Cian Uijtdebroeks takes white climbs fourth place
-
