Benjamin Thomas wins from the breakaway in Lucca and gives Cofidis the very first victory of the year

Pink jersey: Tadej Pogacar (Slo)

Purple jersey: Jonathan Milan (Ita)

Blue jersey: Tadej Pogacar (Slo)

White jersey: Cian Uijtdebroeks

How did the victory come about?

It was a stage with a very surprising outcome. This was because the sprinter teams not only looked at each other far too much and too many teams did not want to work with them, but also because they clearly underestimated the four escapees. The quartet was given a safe conduct 77 km from the end. Too many sprinters counted on Lidl-Trek, Soudal Quick-Step, Jayco-AlUla and Alpecin-Deceuninck to take the cake for them. For Alpecin-Deceuninck it was no longer necessary with 1200 meters to go, which means you are eleven seconds short…

Although Thomas certainly did not steal the day’s victory. The 28-year-old Frenchman, who lives in Italy, is a five-time world champion on the track. He already won gold in the team race, the omnium and the points race. He also used all his track qualities to successfully complete this sprint in his second home country. Thomas not only has an Italian girlfriend, but also lives in Italy. It was already his tenth victory on the road, but only his very first victory in the World Tour.

One kilometer from the end he was almost surprised when the unknown Andrea Pietrobon, who had already been dragging ten kilometers, made a late exit, but Enzo Paleni caught the villain back, then Valgren closed the last gap and then Thomas came out of the slipstream of the Dane. Admit it, this was another Giro ride that was never boring and whose plot no one could have predicted in advance.

However, the stage started very relaxed. As if many wanted to take a day off in anticipation of Thursday’s gravel ride. That’s what Lewis Askey, Mattia Bais and Ewen Costiou thought about it when they were given a free lane after three kilometers. Manuele Tarozzi and Simon Geschke added a nine kilometer race. Even before the two had connected, the young Frenchman Costiou was dismissed by the Arkéa-B&B team management. That’s how it goes in today’s peloton. But the quartet didn’t really get much of a lead. Still, the four must have regretted their attempt, even though their lead was a minute and a half after 25 kilometers.

The escapees never got away because Alpecin-Deceuninck had a well-developed plan. Kaden Groves’ team used the Passo del Bracco, the biggest difficulty of the day, to hurt as many sprinters as possible.

The first to go overboard was Fabio Jakobsen, who was assisted by his friend Julius van den Berg and Gijs Leemreize. At 3.3 km from the top, Merlier took over, but four teammates stayed with him, including Julian Alaphilippe. At 0.9 km from the top, Caleb Ewan also left the peloton and chose to return with the group of Merlier and Gaviria.

The pounding of Roodhoofts’ team meant that the four were overtaken at 111 km from the finish, but at the same time the group with Merlier rejoined in the descent. And one hundred kilometers from the finish, Alpecin-Deceuninck stopped the driving as abruptly as it had started. Kaden Groves took full advantage in the intermediate sprint of Ceparana. 12 points for the Australian, 8 for Olav Kooij and six for Jonathan Milan.

At just over 77 km from the finish, Benjamin Thomas, Michael Valgren, Andrea Pietrobon and Enzo Paleni rode away effortlessly. They were given a lead of a minute and a half, but Lidl-Trek, Soudal Quick-Step and Alpecin-Deceuninck did not allow more. Twenty kilometers from the finish, the four still had a one-minute lead, but Lidl-Trek had decided that it would be a bunch sprint. Cerny, De Marchi, Calmejane, Affini ultimately helped Daan Hoole who did a lot of the chasing work. But it was all butter to the gallows. The peloton made a serious mistake, even with a tailwind. This meant that it did not become a third consecutive mass sprint, but the attackers beat the workhorses in the peloton. In the end it turned out that all the chess work for Groves had been in vain, because in Lucca he recorded a disappointing fifteenth place. The Australian had just lost too much energy in the intermediate sprints.

What did the favorites do?

It was a transition day for the classification riders, because now the gravel stage, the time trial and a mountain stage to Prato di Tivo follow on Saturday. Because the bonus seconds were divided among the escapees, everyone remained in the heart of the peloton.

What did the Belgians do?

Tim Merlier came eighth and first Belgian. In the sprint for fifth place he had to tolerate Milan, Ewan and Bauhaus in front of him. The Wortegem-Petegem native is now 45 points behind in the battle for the maglia ciclamino.

Pieter Serry quickly found himself in the position of controller of the peloton. Together with Amanuel Ghebeigzabhier who is Jonathan Milan’s worker ant. Jimmy Janssens also helped during the first hour of racing and – just like the aforementioned riders – was deployed again when four riders set off again after the intermediate sprint. They would not let Alpecin-Deceuninck miss the last chance for a sprint for Naples on Sunday.

Quinten Hermans took over the Passo del Bracco in the first part of the stage to throw as many sprinters overboard as possible. He aligned the peloton uphill. Timo Kielich also helped with that.

Edward Planckaert was not only the lead out of Kaden Groves in the various intermediate sprints, the Moenenaar also took away some points in the Intergiro under the nose of Jonathan Milan.

Edward Theuns was angry eighteen kilometers from the finish because, according to him, they received too little support in the hunt for the four. To his own frustration, the East Flemish man would be proven right.

Anything else you should know?

* The first Giro week starts as the week in which Tadej Pogacar changed the color of his pants almost every day. After the ‘granata pants’ banned by the UCI, he now rode in pink pants for the first time. On Tuesday, after the phone call from the World Cycling Federation, he quickly changed to a black one just before the start. After the finish in Lucca he changed suits again and appeared on the podium again in black ‘bibs’.

* We started with 170 riders. Over the past four days we lost six units with Gesink, Dunbar, Welten, Carr, Traeen and Girmay.

* Tobias Lund Andresen fell over an embroidery before the official start. The Danish lead out of Fabio Jakobsen was not awake yet.

* Adrien Petit left the finish completely empty with just over a hundred kilometers to go. Intermarché-Wanty thus loses a second man with the Frenchman. That is bad news for Madis Mihkels, the young sprinter of the team who is the only fast man after the loss of Girmay.

* Christophe Laporte made a strange fall in preparation for the intermediate sprint of Ceparana. Did something go wrong with the bike? He continued, badly scraped on the left side, but the European champion was immediately eliminated as lead out for the final in Lucca. Just over ten minutes after his compatriot Thomas, he arrived bruised and tired, mainly on the left side.

* Davide Piganzoli, Alain Riou, Giovanni Lonardi and Riley Pickrell crashed into a traffic island with a traffic sign at high speed in a city center with 35.5 km to go.

* Ten kilometers further on, Attila Valter hit again, falling hard on his shoulder. Nadav Raisberg and Michael Woods were also there, as were Henok Mulubrhan and Lorenzo Milesi, among others.

* Roel van Sintmaartensdijk is not only busy with his first big tour, the Dutchman from Intermarché-Wanty celebrated his 23rd birthday between Genoa and Lucca.

* Lilian Calmejane rode with the blue jersey. It is currently owned by Tadej Pogacar, but because the Frenchman from Intermarché-Wanty has been second since Tuesday, he took over the leader’s shirt from Daniel Felipe Martinez.