photo credits @ Giro d’Italia
Andre Greipel is making his presence known unlike any other rider in this year’s Giro d’Italia, as the Lotto-Soudal powerhouse claimed yet another sprint victory in Foligno today, after executing one of his signature explosive sprints for the line.
Despite finding himself blocked in by other riders, Greipel managed to fight his way through the bunch to unleash his sprint during the closing meters, to deny his closest rivals Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo), Sacha Modolo (Lampre – Merida) and Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEdge) the victory.
Today’s win marked Greipel’s second stage victory in the Italian Grand Tour, upping Lotto-Soudal’s tally to three, after his teammate, Tim Wellens, triumphed in yesterday’s first mountain stage finish with a solo victory.
“It was a hard day, a really hard day,” Greipel said. “There was a strong break upfront but my team did an amazing job again. They killed themselves to bring the race back together. We hit the front early and but I was happy to find a gap, get through and win.”
Race Highlights
An early six-rider breakaway group containing Stefan Kung (BMC Racing), Stefan Denifl (IAM Cycling), Giulio Ciccone (Bardiani-CSF), Ilia Koshevoy (Lampre-Merida), Daniel Martinez (Southeast) and Axel Domont (ag2r La Mondiale), went on to eek-out a moderate advantage of around three minutes over the peloton.
Kung would later go on to attack his fellow escapees during the final 20 kilometers, subsequently opening up a slight gap of less than half a minute over the peloton, before being reined in during the last 7 kilometers.
From there, the peloton took over, with teams ushering their respective sprinters into position during the closing kilometers.
Meanwhile, Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) finished safely in the peloton, to maintain his grip on the overall race lead.
Top 10 Finishers
1 André Greipel (Ger) Lotto Soudal 5:01:08 2 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 3 Sacha Modolo (Ita) Lampre – Merida 4 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge 5 Enrico Battaglin (Ita) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 6 Matteo Trentin (Ita) Etixx – Quick-Step 7 Alexander Porsev (Rus) Team Katusha 8 Aleksei Tsatevich (Rus) Team Katusha 9 Nicola Ruffoni (Ita) Bardiani CSF 10 Elia Viviani (Ita) Team Sky
General classification after stage 7
1 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Giant-Alpecin 29:23:23 2 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team 0:00:26 3 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Team Katusha 0:00:28 4 Bob Jungels (Lux) Etixx – Quick-Step 0:00:35 5 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 0:00:38 6 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:41 7 Diego Ulissi (Ita) Lampre – Merida 8 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:00:47 9 Kanstantsin Siutsou (Blr) Dimension Data 0:00:49 10 Rigoberto Uran (Col) Cannondale Pro Cycling 0:00:51
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