Half time! This is what stage 11 marks in a GT, and we're glad you'll be following this one with us again! It may sound strange, but this one is already the last tough hilly stage in the 2020 Giro!
Which may sound like good news to those who don't like non-flat roads - but it actually isn't, as five mountain stages are awaiting us in the last seven days... But it is rather bad news for the puncheurs on the startlist, as it's one of their last big chances of getting a notable result - so we can expect a tough fight!
Tough is definitely the right word for this stage - especially for the first 70 kilometers. We have no less than 5 hills, whereof the first and the last have been classified as category 3 KoM sprints.
We'll start in Forlì - yesterday's arrival location, from where we'll head south-west, to the Tuscan-Romagnol Apennines. The first climb starts in Casone, after 19 kilometers. The riders will have to climb the following hills:
km
Name
Altitude
KoM Points
27.3
Passo del Trebbio
565m
Cat. 3
36.3
Monte Casale
469m
-
49.6
La Valletta
406m
-
57.4
Monte Albano
438m
-
72.1
Valico del Prugno
533m
Cat. 3
So that's five climbs within 50 kilometers - a paradise for the puncheurs! Unfortunately for them, this is only the first half of the stage, so all they can probably do is get rid of some weaker hill riders. Including GC contenders? Including Maglia Rosa Malecki? We'll see!
From Valico del Prugno - the plum tree pass - the riders will first take the downhill to Borgo Tossignano, where we'll have the intermeiate sprint, followed by a descending false flat after which they will get close to the finish line for the first time - which is the finish line of the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola.
Of course, motorsports are what Imola is best known for. Unforgotten are the fatal crashes of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna in 1994. 28 times did the Autodromo host a Formula 1 GP, but many other races take place here as well.
Exceptionally, today's main protagonists don't do motorsports - although a big engine will be needed to finish high up! Because reaching Imola doesn't mean that the race is finished - instead, three additional laps of about 17km each will have to be done.
But of course, it's not laps on the race track, that would be too easy. Instead, they will have to climb three times up to Tre Monti, a rather unsteady hill. On the second lap, we'll have a category 4 KoM sprint on top.
From the final Tre Monti passage to the finish line, there will be just about 9km left - will one of the puncheurs finally try his luck here? Will the breakaway riders strike back after yesterday's rare defeat?
For the bookies, it's clear who should win this one: the puncheurs. McCarthy, Spilak and Vakoc - stage winner two days ago - get three stars today. Boswell, Demare and Izagirre follow in the second category, while Bystrom, Taaramäe, Talansky and Arndt complete the list. It will be really interesting to see how Generali and Team Puma - SAP handle the situation with two favorites today - especially the Germans with Arndt and Demare both doing well recently!
The weather definitely doesn't look as good as on most days so far - a foreshadowing of what is going to come for some riders? On the other hand, we often had blue skies and it still started raining - maybe it will be the opposite today?
As there's no wind, however, it's unlikely that the clouds will be blown away. And with Forlì and Imola being separated by just 30km, we're going to stay within the same region the whole day long. But I'm sure that no matter the weather, there will be attacks as soon as the race is on!
And they're not doing things by halves today, as we have eight riders attacking at the same time! They are, in order: Gradek, Reus, Boom, Sergis, Danacik, McCarthy, Zoidl and Serrano.
A lot of blue jerseys here, but all from a different team. Fedeli leads the next attack, followed by Munoz, Bystrom and Cosnefroy - meaning that with McCarthy and Bystrom we again have two stage favorites in the offense!
But it isn't over yet: Abreu, Roman, van der Poel and Vosekalns are trying to join the fun! Only 6 kilometers done since the start, with a lot of action going on again!
Oh well, half of the peloton seems to want to get into that breakaway today! Girdlestone, Kruijswijk, Sakalou, Vanbilsen and Vendrame are next.
The peloton seems to be more or less OK with these 21 frontrunners. But only more or less, as Brown is setting a pace that doesn't allow the escapees to get too far away by now, just a bit more than 2 minutes.
As we suspected, it starts raining just as the escapees have all gathered. Just in time to tackle the first hill, with 700m to go on the flat!
With a lead of 2'23", we seem to have found our Breakaway of the Day, so as always at this point, let's take a look at the group's members:
We already said that pre-stage favorites McCarthy and Bystrom are easily the strongest puncheurs. However, the repeated climbing - more than 2,300m of elevation gain are awaiting them - might hurt them more than some rather hybrid riders.
We have to mention Vosekalns among them, who is the strongest climber in the group, followed by Roman. Sakalou and Sergis make it a very strong trio up front for Evonik - ELKO. Zoidl belongs into that hybrid category, too.
If the race should not be that hard, and we get to see a sprint in the end, van der Poel and Vanbilsen would be the favorites, along with Vendrame. However, it's hard to see the two latter making it over all those hills inside the group.
And of course, it's not sure at all that these 21 men will really be fighting for the stage win! But let's still get an overview of the whole group:
Vosekalns
Sakalou
Sergis
McCarthy
Munoz
Roman
Gradek
Serrano
Cosnefroy
van der Poel
Boom
Fedeli
Vanbilsen
Bystrom
Kruijswijk
Zoidl
Danacik
Abreu
Vendrame
Girdlestone
Reus
GC-wise, Kruijswijk is clearly the best placed rider, sitting in 14th, 12'05" behind his teammate Malecki. Abreu in 29th is 16'28" back - so there should be no danger for the Maglia Rosa coming from this group.
As said before, there are just a few hundred meters to go until the start of the climb to Passo del Trebbio. The steepest slopes are awaiting in the first half of the climb, having gradients of up to 7.5%. With the flatter part towards the top, we can expect a hard fight for the points!
Roman is by far the most dangerous rider for Vakoc in this respect, as he's the only one in the breakaway who could theoretically take over the Magila Azzurra today. He needs 11 points to take the exclusive lead.
Not much after the escapees, the pack attacks this climb as well, with Brown still setting a rather high pace. The gap is down to 2'09", so the peloton definitely doesn't want to give those attackers too much freedom.
Abreu launches the sprint very early, with still 1.5km to go! Most of these early-launchers aren't making good experiences with this strategy - how about the Venezuelan?
Nor does he, as he doesn't get a single point at this category 3 sprint. Danacik was first on top, ahead of Bystrom. Zoidl and Kruijswijk are fighting for the final points - with the better end for the former.
This hill already brought a pretty surprising split, especially with Vosekalns and Sakalou being caught behind, along with Cosnefroy, Munoz, Gradek, Boom and Vanbilsen. Let's see if they can make it back to the front - or if the bunch reels them in before!
They just didn't participate in the KoM sprint - and this is the result.
Hsu is leading the peloton over the top - hence it doesn't come as a big surprise that their deficit went up to 3 minutes.
Still, many riders are already in troubles at the end of the pack - including many time trialists. They definitely should come back fast, else they might miss out on their highlight in three days!
As the front group tackles the ascent to Monte Casale, the second group has come closer again, with the peloton about to finish the descent from Passo del Trebbio.
The chasers re-join the leaders soon after, so let's see what that hill - without KoM sprint, but having gradients of up to 8% - brings.
Zoidl leads the breakaway over the top of Monte Casale - but the pack has now even come closer on the climb! Our last indication is 2'12" - they're really pushing hard right from the start today!
Meanwhile, more and more riders drop off the peloton. We can see Leung here, followed by Van Zandbeek, Mullen, Wolf, Campenaerts, Haugard and Goss.
Even further behind are Clarke, Kosic, Dewulf, Nizzolo, Meyer, Frison, Yatsevich, Suryadi, Kolev, Boudat, Major, Dillier and the stage's red lantern Van Winden, who already trails by more than 7 minutes. With still more than 110km to go and some more hills, that will definitely be a tough day for all of these!
The climb to La Valletta is next on the menu - and this one has some slopes above 12%! Let's see what that means for both the pack and the breakaway - some riders are looking tired in both groups.
Fernandes has now taken control, and the gap is already under two minutes!
O'Shea and Appollonio are the next riders to be dropped by the pack, while Malecki is in the last positions as well!
These gradients were too much for Vanbilsen, who definitely has to let go this time. 20 riders remaining up front.
That's pretty much the worst-case scenario for Lierse SK, as Fedeli can't keep up either just as they reach the top! Can at least the Italian come back on the descent?
Meanwhile, more and more riders are shed by the pack - it would now be too much to name them all. Just about 100 riders remain in the pack!
Vanbilsen has been caught by the pack, that is on the descent now as well. Malecki's position really doesn't look great - but he's still inside the peloton. Can he survive the next two hills?
Fedeli is still ahead of the pack, as the breakaway tackles the Monte Albano climb. However, Gradek has just lost contact as well, so the pace up front must definitely be high!
Just a little later, it's over as well for Sakalou, Serrano and Vendrame. The pack is pretty close as well, so it probably won't take long for them to be reeled in.
This is about to happen for Fedeli and Gradek already, as Madouas is leading the peloton uphill. The slope is over 8% here as well, so it's no wonder that one rider after the other just tires out.
Danacik, Reus and Munoz are the next ex-members of the breakaway, as they approach the hilltop. All others have already been swept up by the pack, which trails by just 1'48". How long can both groups keep up this horrendous pace?
There are even some rather unexpected victims of this fast pace, as we see Van Niekerk and Kozhatayev in this left-behind group. Bernal is here as well, whereas Campero once again is even further back.
The good news: we arrive at the last of these five climbs of the first race half! The bad news: it still needs to be climbed... The Valico del Prugno is pretty much the opposite of the first climb: easy in the first half, harder towards the top.
van der Poel leads the breakaway into this ascent. Danacik is still trying to come back, with the peloton already close to the end of the downhill as well. Let's see if some more riders will be left behind on this climb.
Yes, this is the peloton - or rather what's left of it. Malecki is still at the rear, but is still holding on, too! He's got 4 teammates with him just in case - Gazelle are really doing a great job so far!
Girdlestone's breakaway adventure is done, too. Roman launches the sprint for the KoM points with still 1.3km to go - he needs to get the maximum points on both remaining sprints if he wants to take the KoM jersey!
And Roman indeed wins that one! Kruijswijk and van der Poel are able to keep up with him, whereas McCarthy, Vosekalns, Cosnefroy and Bystrom have to leave a small gap.
1. Roman - 5 (29)
2. Kruijswijk - 3 (17)
3. van der Poel - 1 (15)
Further behind, Sergis, Abreu, Zoidl and Boom - already overtaken by Girdlestone - seem to have been dropped for good.
The peloton already has Boom and Girdlestone right ahead as they ride over the top. As there are quite some splits and isolated riders, let's take a look at the current situation:
McCarthy
van der Poel
Vosekalns
Roman
Kruijswijk
+ 29"
Bystrom
Cosnefroy
+ 1'05"
Sergis
+ 1'49"
Abreu
Zoidl
+ 2'16"
Boom
Girdlestone
+ 2'33"
Peloton (73 riders)
With the hardest part of the stage done now, we can expect things to calm down a little. However, with the pack's pace so far, it wouldn't come as a surprise if they tried to catch the remaining escapees as early as possible today!
After the uneventful downhill to Borgo Tossignano, the intermediate sprint isn't disputed, either. Still, the points are of course distributed:
1. Vosekalns - 10 (10)
2. Kruijswijk - 6 (23)
3. McCarthy - 4 (4)
4. Roman - 2 (21)
5. van der Poel - 1 (33)
Bystrom and Cosnefroy are still a few seconds back and will hope to re-join soon, whereas Sergis' position doesn't look great. Moreover, he isn't really strong on the flat...
That's it for Girdlestone and Boom, as Costagli sprints across the line and catches them.
Behind the pack, Izagirre had again been distanced towards the end of the last climb, but has made it back in the meantime.
Kozhatayev and Van Niekerk haven't, though. Some more Top 35 riders are with them: Bizkarra, Harper and McKenna. They trail by a little more than a minute and could make it back if the bunch slows down as it usually does at some time.
Cosnefroy and Bystrom have made it back to the front, whereas Sergis is still swimming somewhere in the middle between the front and the pack. A little more than 60km to go.
Most importantly for the race, Malecki is still inside the peloton, and even has his lieutenant Bibby with him. Another great performance by the Pole!
Sergis now has just a few meters left on the pack and will be caught soon. Abreu and Zoidl are right behind him, hidden by the blue car.
Given the pouring rain, the leaders probably would have loved to turn left here, with the finish line already in sight. But no, this right turn marks the start of the three additional laps up to Tre Monti. The gap is again down to under 2 minutes - let's see if they can hold on!
Let's just take a look at that hill the riders have to tackle three times now. Especially the first kilometer will hurt a lot, with the middle part being almost flat and the final uphill section not very steep, either.
The peloton now is in that steep section, with the breakaway right ahead. Niu is leading the chase, trying to reduce the current 1'20" gap. All top GC contenders are still in the pack, which counts 71 riders right now.
van der Poel leads the escapees across the top for the first time. Next time they arrive here, there will be KoM points at stake - the chance for Roman to take over the lead!
Behind, we observe a phenomenon that's well-known by now: Niu has to lead the chase, even though he's completely empty. Consequently, the pace has significantly dropped, and the pack crosses the line 2 minutes later only!
40 kilometers to go, including two more ascents of Tre Monti!
On the 2nd lap, it's Bernal - who has made it back - leading the chase, with the peloton still trailing by 1'51"! Don't be fooled by the small group of riders in between, these are lapped ones.
But Roman fails his golden opportunity, as he only takes 3rd on the Tre Monti KoM sprint:
1. Kruijswijk - 6 (23)
2. van der Poel - 4 (19)
3. Roman - 2 (31)
Which means that Roman falls short to match Vakoc's score by 3 points, making the Czech keep the Maglia Azzurra for at least one more day.
In the pack, we now see the same story again, but with Bernal instead of Niu. It looks more and more like they're simply giving a way another stage win, instead of someone taking some risks!
On the descent, van der Poel tries to capitalize on his superior downhill skills! Although he's the best sprinter as well, he wants to decide this race early on - or simply start the final climb some seconds ahead of the stronger puncheurs?
But the attack didn't succeed, we again have our group of 7 back to full strength. One last lap remaining - Suryadi marks the left turn they'll have to take one last time. Who can launch the decisive attack? Will we get a 7-way sprint? Do they start playing games and let the pack come back? Answers on the final 17 kilometers!
Vosekalns is the first to attack, just as we arrive at the foot of the climb! Kruijswijk takes his wheel, with Cosnefroy and Roman following as well.
These four have opened a small gap to Bystrom, van der Poel and McCarthy, while Sendeku and Ji are still desperately trying to reduce the gap!
It's still 2'04", though - with just this one climb and a descent remaining, it seems rather likely that this stage goes to the breakaway once more!
Boswell is finally springing into action, followed by Demare! Vakoc is right there as well, but doesn't seem to be eager to follow this strong duo!
Meanwhile, the 7 escapees are again together, with 10 kilometers to go. Will we see an attack on the final incline? Or on the descent? Or will it come down to a sprint?
Or can Boswell and Demare catch them? The gap is still 2 minutes, so that seems to be highly unlikely!
But wait - is it really that unlikely? As the breakaway rides over the top for the last time, Boswell and Demare have already reduced the gap by a minute!
The pack has given up and is another minute behind - but can the chasing duo bring their attack to a successful end?
Five kilometers to go, and Boswell is only 40" back! Demare still trails the US-American by a few meters - Boswell probably doesn't want to ride with the Frenchman, who wouldn't leave him any chance in a sprint!
On the other hand, if they want to have a chance to catch the escapees, they'd better collaborate!
Two kilometers to the line - just one right turn and then the final stretch remaining! McCarthy is leading the group - and Boswell still trails by 36", likely being out of contention now!
McCarthy still leads the group under the Fiamma Rossa, while Roman is already launching his sprint! He isn't the fastest, so he has to try with a surprise attack!
The clear favorite should be van der Poel - but after such a hard stage, it rather comes down to the energy reserves still available!
Boswell is just riding around that final turn, but he hasn't come any closer and will probably have to settle for 8th - if he isn't outsprinted.
With 700m to go, all riders have launched their sprint, with Roman still having about one bike length of advantage!
McCarthy is second, followed by Kruijswijk, Cosnefroy and van der Poel. Bystrom and Vosekalns still have some ground to make up!
Only 500 meters to the line, as Roman still holds on to his advantage! However, van der Poel has now reached his top speed and is closing in - just like Kruijswijk, who has moved past McCarthy as well!
Bystrom is about to pass Cosnefroy, while Vosekalns is still in last position.
300m remaining, and Roman still holds on to his lead! But van der Poel is relentlessly coming closer - as is Kruijswijk, who shows a great sprint performance as well!
Further back, we can see that Boswell has definitely gotten rid of Demare and should take 8th place.
And with just 200m to the line, van der Poel has finally taken the lead - but just by some inches! Can Roman strike back? Or will even Kruijswijk move past those two?
Bystrom, Cosnefroy and McCarthy are currently fighting for 4th, with Vosekalns still a bike length back.
Only 100 meters to go, as van der Poel is extending his lead! He looks like the safe winner, while Roman is clearly struggling now and has to hope that he can fend off the others!
Mathieu van der Poel wins stage 11 of the 2020 Giro d'Italia! The Dutchman knew that he was the best sprinter and brings this one home with a perfectly timed sprint - congratulations to yet another maiden GT stage winner!
But who will take 2nd and 3rd? It still looks pretty good for Roman, but Kruijswijk is very strong!
Very strong - too strong? It's clear that Aleksandar Roman and Steven Kruijswijk take 2nd and 3rd - but in which order?
And who will come in 4th? Bystrom and Vosekalns are probably out of this fight, but it's a close one between Cosnefroy and McCarthy!
It's yet another duel where we'll have to wait for the officials to communicate the result - it just isn't obvious enough from these images!
What's sure, though, is that Sven Erik Bystrom is 6th, and Andris Vosekalns takes the final spot in this group - 7th.
Now we have to wait for the official results - and for the next riders to come in!
Next is a visibly disappointed Ian Boswell. He had the stage win in his legs - but the peloton once again was not strong (or rather smart) enough to catch the breakaway, and so he has to settle for 8th.
Behind, Demare has clearly slowed down and must hope to stay ahead of the pack now!
Which he easily does, as Arnaud Demare takes 9th place. A disappointing result for him once again - he was strong, but with all these points lost to the breakaway once more, he definitely can't be happy with this result. Still, it's 9 points added to his score, which could be important!
Further back, his teammates Niu and Arndt are leading the pack's sprint, with Talansky and Barguil very strong as well.
It's Nikias Arndt who makes it a 9-10 for his team, ahead of Warren Barguil, who just misses out on the Top 10. Just as William Chiarello, Simon Spilak and Rein Taaramäe, who are next to cross the line. Jack Haig gets the final points for coming in 15th.
Places 16 to 20 go to Christian Mager, Timofey Kritskiy, Andrei Amador, Petr Vakoc and Martins Blums.
And while we're waiting for the last riders to finish the race, we have finally got the full results: Aleksandar Roman was indeed able to defend 2nd place against Steven Kruijswijk! Behind this duo, Jay McCarthy takes 4th, Benoit Cosnefroy 5th.
And we have some gaps as well: Boswell loses 1'15", Demare 1'40" and the peloton 1'53". We'll see what this means for Kruijswijk, who was in 14th place pre-stage.
Malecki again loses a few meters at the very end of the stage, showing that he definitely isn't unbeatable. However, today he's lucky, as the officials don't see any gaps here. Once more...
There are however time gaps for Van Niekerk and McKenna (+ 3'40" for both), Kozhatayev (+ 5'54") or Salinas (+ 8'23") - and many others.
Dillier, who is the last rider to finish, does so just 4 minutes inside the time limit - which probably means that all riders will still be there at the start of the third week! But there's still some work to do before...
But for today, the work is done, so let's party now! Here is Mathieu van der Poel, who once again joined the breakaway - and after sprinting to 3rd two days ago, he is now the day's great winner! He definitely capitalized on the fact that the stronger puncheurs didn't attack on that last hill - and then simply showed his sprint strength. A great day for the youngster!
Aleksandar Roman made a gutsy move, launching his sprint before everyone else - and had there not been a superior sprinter, it might actually have worked! After several other breakaway attempts without finishing on the podium, he secured 2nd place today - which is already the 5th podium for Isostar - Specialized!
Steven Kruijswijk narrowly missed out on that 2nd place and had to settle for 3rd - which is his second podium after finishing 2nd three days ago, and the fourth for his team. And he even moved up quite a bit in the GC, as we'll see shortly!
Kamil Malecki defends the Maglia Rosa one more time - on the stage he probably dreaded most of those remaining in this 2nd week - meaning that it's very likely he'll tackle the final week still wearing this jersey! What a race for the young Pole!
And it's even better news for Gazelle that Steven Kruijswijk has gained enough time today to make it a 1-2 for them! Kruijswijk is now 10 minutes flat behind his teammate, followed by Kristaps Budenieks, who trails by 10'34". For a team without a top class GC contender, that's an amazing performance so far!
Kamil Malecki of course still leads the U25 standings as well, 10'34" ahead of Kristaps Budenieks and 17'35" ahead of Egan Bernal. Whereas defending the Maglia Rosa all the way will likely be out of reach given the hard stages in the final week, maybe he can at least have a shot at the Maglia Bianca? Let's see...
Arnaud Demare had to accept yet another unsatisfying result today. Once again listed among the stage favorites, his team (and some others) failed to reel in the breakaway - and finally, he even had to let go of Boswell, who had a stronger day today.
Nonetheless, the 9 points gained surely come in handy, as he extends the lead in the race for the Maglia Ciclamino to 35 points ahead of Emiliano Contreras. Kamil Malecki still sits in 3rd, another 4 points down.
Petr Vakoc rode inside the peloton today, and therefore had to hope that Aleksandar Roman wouldn't gain more than 9 points on the stage - which indeed happened. The latter has still moved up to 2nd, totalling 31 points and trailing by just 3 points.
In 3rd place, we now have the quartet that shared 2nd place before: Kamil Malecki, Kristaps Budenieks, Ian Boswell and Joey Rosskopf. Let's see what happens tomorrow, with 16 points at stake.
In the team standings, Gazelle again extend their lead by a few seconds. They now lead 10'30" ahead of cycleYorkshire and 10'49" ahead of Evonik - ELKO. Team Puma - SAP and eBuddy, who were 2nd and 3rd pre-stage, dropped to 5th and 4th respectively.
And with this we end today's live broadcast from the 2020 Giro d'Italia! Once again, the breakaway fooled the peloton and took the stage win - it's 8/10 so far, which is an incredible result! Can the pack - and especially the best puncheurs - strike back tomorrow?
Giro d'Italia 
