photo credits @ Giro d’Italia
Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) took his second win in this year’s Giro d’Italia, powering his way to victory after a thrilling sprint finish in today’s stage 11.
In the meantime, Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) maintained his 2’40” lead in the fight for the maglia rosa, while a late surge for bonus sprint seconds saw Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) reduce the gap to second-placed Dani Martinez (Bora-Hansgrohe) to 16 seconds.
Race Highlights
Today’s 207km stage saw the Giro follow a northerly path towards the Adriatic coast, with Thomas Champion (Cofidis) being the first protagonist of the day to escape the peloton before teammates Eduardo Affini and Tim van Dijke headed out in pursuit of the Frenchman.
From there, their lead never swelled beyond a couple of minutes, while the peloton allowed them to dangle.
However, with 30km to go, Champion, Affini and Van Dijke exchanged a few respectful words and drifted back to the peloton.
Under the 3km banner, the usual suspects of Alpecin-Deceuninck and Soudal-Quickstep were in complete control.
With 500m to go, an overlap of wheels saw five riders go down, narrowly ensnaring Fabio Jakobsen (dsm-Firmenich), while leaving Jenthe Biermans (Arkea-B&B Hotels) with nowhere to go but over the top of the pile.
Bert Van Lerberghe (Alpecin-Deceuninck) pushed on for Tim Merlier, with Kaden Groves on his wheel and Milan next in line.
Sebastian Molano was the first rider to open up his sprint, only to have Merlier swing across into his path, as the Belgian launched his own sprint.
Meanwhile, Milan drifted in the same direction, maintaining his speed as Merlier faded.
Merlier was subsequently relegated to last place in the group for his deviation, awarded 89th place on the stage.
That meant Groves was bumped up to 2nd, while Giovanni Lonardi (Team Polti Kometa) achieved a career-best 3rd place. Laurence Pithie, making his Grand Tour debut, was promoted to a race-high 4th.
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