Alaphilippe bites the dust! Pelayo Sanchez wins sprint from Frenchman and triumphs in the gravel stage of the Giro

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?

For the second day in a row this was with a long attack of 101 kilometers. It was a stage that Julian Alaphilippe had already mentioned last winter when he decided to ride the Giro for the first time in his career. It was also his first victory since June 5, 2023, when he won the second stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné in the sprint in La Chaise-Dieu.

However, that was without Pelayo Sanchez, who proved to be the strongest of the trio in the final. The Spaniard caught our eye in the Vuelta last year when he finished third in the grueling stage on the penultimate day behind Wout Poels, who beat Remco Evenepoel. The signal for Movistar to take over the rider from Burgos-BH. Rapolano Terme was the tall Sanchez’s first ever World Tour victory and only his third professional victory.

At 11.3 km from the end, things already looked very bad for Julian Alaphilippe when Pelayo Sanchez miscalculated on a roundabout and took the Frenchman with him. The signal for Australian champion Luke Plapp to continue. Alaphilippe seemed to crack on the Wall of Asciano, but came back in character with the Spaniard from Movistar as pacemaker. They also had to continue because the front guard of the peloton was only 1’05” away at seven kilometers from the finish.

What a stage this was! On the flat roads there was a lot of attack. Half of the peloton attacked, but no one really got away from this flying start. The average speed for the first sixty kilometers was 51.4 km per hour.

It took literally 79 km before we got an escape. We were already on the flanks of the fourth category hill, on the way to Volterra. Julian Alaphilippe, Aurélien Paret-Peintre and Filippo Fiorelli finally got away from there. The Italian asked the former world champion if he could be the first to get through the Tuscan historic city center where he could grab three points for the mountain jersey. He got a go from Alaphilippe. At 92 km from the finish, a group of 22 riders emerged from the peloton, but that counterattack also failed. It remained a true novices race because eight kilometers further we had seven leaders with Kaden Groves, Julian Alaphilippe, Luke Plapp, Matteo Trentin, Filippo Fiorelli, Andrea Vendrame, and Pelayo Sanchez. UAE-Team Emirates went into cruise control, while Groves was in his element as the Australian took the full spoils of 12 points in the intermediate sprint in Casole d’Elsa. Once again Fiorelli asked if he could go, but the sprinter from Alpecin-Deceuninck did not want to hear that. At 70 km from the finish the lead had increased to more than two minutes. Only Edoardo Zambarini held a chasse patate for a while. Ten kilometers further it was already three minutes.

The seven escapees entered the first strip of sterrati in Vidritta with a lead of 3’12”, but after the first zone one minute had already been lost. Luke Plapp realized that he was not going fast enough at the front and accelerated on the second uphill stretch, but then the lead was under two minutes. That was because Jonathan Milan did not like Groves having free space up front. Julian Alaphilippe crossed to the Australian champion with Pelayo Sanchez on the sterrati to Grotti, so we had three leaders.

Under the impulse of Arensman, the lead was reduced to 1’28” at the end of the second zone (40 km from the finish). But after the second sterrati the peloton fell silent again and the lead increased again to 2’36” at 30 km from Rapolano Terme. Mikkel Frolich Honoré (EF Education-EasyPost) then rode between the rest of the leading group and the peloton. In the Intergiro, Groves picked up 5 more points for the maglia ciclamino, so that he jumped into second place over Merlier.

What did the favorites do?

It didn’t really make leader Tadej Pogacar nervous that Luke Plapp was virtually in pink before the sterrati and again briefly after the second zone. Then he quickly put Mikkel Bjerg at the head of the peloton.

Damiano Caruso literally dropped out of the rankings when the Italian was involved in a heavy fall 18 km from the end as the peloton rushed at high speed towards the final zone sterrati in Pievina.

READ ALSO. Tadej Pogacar breathes a sigh of relief after the gravel stage in the Giro: “Glad that this stage is over”

What did the Belgians do?

Cian Uijtdebroeks had two delays before the final even started. He had to change bike just before the climb to Volterra (still half the race). That went fairly quickly. The classification rider was lucky that the biggest attack was already behind him. He was also there at 41 km from the end when Daniel Felipe Martinez, Ben O’Connor, Einer Rubio and his teammate Valter were delayed at a bend on the unpaved stretch uphill to Grotti, but after the second zone they had already retook their place in the peloton.

Anything else you should know?

* Israel-Premier Tech is in the corner where the blows are falling. No fewer than three riders did not return to the start. In addition to the Israeli debutant Nadav Raisberg (broken hand), Michael Woods also stayed behind in the riders’ hotel. The Canadian suffered a concussion from the fall. Riley Pickrell had ridden to the start, but with his badly damaged nose it was decided not to do this either. from eight to five as a result of one crash.

* Daniel Felipe Martinez, as leader of Bora-hansgrohe, had to passively watch how he had to continue without a sick Florian Lipowitz. And say that the German World Tour team did not include a well-trained Emanuel Buchmann in the Giro selection, although he had been told this since the win.

* Lorenzo Fortunato (Polti-Kometa) celebrated his 28th birthday with a sterrati stage in the Giro.