photo credits @ Giro d’Italia
Tim Merlier (Soudal-QuickStep) claimed today’s final stage of the Giro d’Italia, beating Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) in a hotly-contested sprint finale in Rome, while Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) finished just ahead of Fernando Gaviria (Movistar) to seize the final spot on the podium.
Meanwhile, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) sealed the overall victory, after the Slovenian rider safety glided to victory into Rome.
Today’s stage featured eight laps of a slightly altered 10km circuit, taking in the Colosseum and Circus Maximus, with Mikkel Honore (EF Education EasyPost), Alex Baudin (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Ewen Costiou (Arkea-B&B Hotels) and Martin Marcellusi (VF Group-Bardiani-Faizane) animating things shortly after the flag dropped.
From there, the quartet built up a slight advantage of around 30 seconds, but their time out front was eventually brought to a close with 13km remaining.
With 9km to go, Milan suffered a mechanical problem, throwing a cold blanket on his sprint preparations. Yet, while it seemed impossible he would make it back to the bunch, let alone be able to vie for the win, with a Herculean effort he was able to rejoin the fray.
Movistar and Visma led the bunch into the last bend, with Merlier hanging back, even beyond the wheel of Milan.
However, the Belgian rider eventually came to the fore with 150m to go, overhauling Milan by several bike lengths to snatch the victory.
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