It wasn’t until the halfway point that a breakaway finally materialized, with 19 riders containingthe likes of Jhonatan Narváez (Ineos Grenadeirs), Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal Quick-Step), Steinhauser and Sánchez coming to the fore.
With 50 kilometers to go, 4 riders escaped over the Passo Duron, who were quickly joined by Quinten Hermans (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Luke Plapp (Jayco AlUla) and Vendrame. But, the septet didn’t stay together for long, with Vendrame launching what appeared to be a doomed attack with 30 kilometers still to go.
However, Vendrame continued to increase his advantage, later swelling to around a minute along the final climb.
In the meantime, Steinhauser and Sánchez made a few efforts to bridge their way across, but the duo was only able to pull back a handful of seconds on the lone leader.
