Welcome again to our final day here in Italy. Yesterday we had a stupendous day which saw Eastman clinch the yellow jersey. He should be glad with his 48’’ advantage but will need to be attentive today. There are plenty of other battles within the top10 as well as for the KoM jersey.
The 2 climbs featured in today’s profile provide more than enough for the mountain goats of the peloton to go at it. However, the last of those, San Genesio, finishes more than 30km from the line, so they will have to take some risks in the descent which could put some of the off.
We start off with our usual break. A huge one today with a total of 15 riders:
It includes: Geniez Cumming Mat Senan Pirazzi Belmokhtar Bagot Kreuziger Habtemichael Fouquet Wallays Izagirre Fuchs De Laat Hardy Lau
Belmokhtar being the best well-placed in GC – 35th +8’56
1st intermediate sprint:
1. Wallays
2. Mat Senan
3. Habtemichael
These fellows start climbing Collalbo with a difference of 4’03 to the pack. The pace is an easy one, both here and in the peloton.
Fuchs and Mat Senan must have been anxious to resume yesterday’s feud. The Swiss gets the better of his rival, but the official result is somehow reversed. The officials must have seen some irregularity in his sprint and award the first position to the Malaysian who reaffirms his KoM leadership.
All the escapees, except Fouquet, regroup in the descent which leads to the final climb of this race - San Genesio. It’s another 10km brute of a climb. The pack is 7’09 in arrears, there might be a shot at a stage triumph for the breakaway.
Ricco starts working for his leader. Panayotov and quickly cuts the gap to 5’32 in the first 2kms. Will we see Adastra mixing things up?
No, at least not for the first 5km of climbing. Everyone seems to be looking at each other. Ricco continues to shed the gap which sits at 4’33.
Up front the only news is that Wallays can’t keep up with the pace. A lot of breath-holding is happening, but that’s all there is to report at the moment.
The KoM classification is about to be decided though and as usual Mat Senan pounces in the last kms of the climb. Pirazzi, Hardy and Fuchs respond.
Still no news from the pack…
Hardy is the winner atop San Genesio, but Mat Senan will take home the polka dot jersey.
Their attention now turns fully to stage honours. 31km await them, most of them downhilling. The rest of the group passes 1’11 after the recent attackers.
The main group crests the mountain 7 minutes after them, with a staggering amount of 0 accelerations.
Yesterday must have been too hard for these guys. It turns out Ricco was probably just heroically trying to save his 32nd place in GC.
The groups at the front rejoin. A few have lost contact though ( Kreuziger, Habtemichael and Lau).
Battaglin attempts to breakaway from the yellow jersey group but the attentive Azteca domestiques never give him any chance.
Kiserlovski tries the same but he won’t get anywhere either.
You have to understand these guys must be in for a good shouting session with their DS so attacking on the descent must at least look good on the TV.
Bagot tries his luck as the front group enters the final 5km.
He gets a 20’’ gap but the whole group reacts! (Thank you, front group, for some action)
He holds the advantage into the final 2km. Geniez leading the pursuit but no one else wants to help him now…
The chasing group starts the sprint with 500m to go. Geniez seems to have saved a final kick as he distances everyone but Cuming! Bagot is hanging on to dear life telling his legs to shut up!
250m Bagot still in front but Cuming is coming for him…
And the Brit takes it. Heartbreaking 2nd place for Bagot
But let’s quickly get back to the group of favourites where things seem to have lit up. Kiserlovski has accelerated yet again, this time with Faiers and Valls, who’s looking for instructions as to how to proceed.
Frantic chasing by the rest of the top10 ensues!
The Croat creates a gap, but he gets absolutely no help from the other two. The group behind start its sprint.
But the gaps erodes with the final accelerations and everyone finishes with the same time.
So, that’s it for the Giro del Trentino. Congrats to Ryan Eastman for his dominating win.
Results failed to export so I’ll leave the screenshots of all classifications:
