photo credits @ Giro d’Italia
Carlo Verona won stage 15 of the Giro d’italia today, after the Lidl-Trek rider pulled off a brave attack with 44km to go.
Verona execute a blistering affront from an 11-rider lead group, holding off his chasers on the final climb of the day to claim a solo victory in Asiago.
The victory marked only the second of Verona’s career – his first coming at the Critérium du Dauphiné three years ago – and put him alongside Mads Pedersen and Dan Hoole as Lidl-Trek stage winners in this year’s edition.
Meanwhile, in the battle for the pink jersey, Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) dropped to 10th, losing a minute and a half to his rivals after he was distanced on the final climb, with Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) continuing to lead the race ahead of Monday’s second rest day.
Earlier, a massive breakaway group of 35 riders containing the likes of Mathias Vacek, Daniel Martinez, Pello Bilbao, Nicolas Prodhomme, Georg Steinhauser, David Gaudu, Joshua Tarling, Marco Frigo, Luke Plapp, Filippo Zana, Bart Lemmen, Diego Ulissi, Lorenzo Fortunato and Christian Scaroni escaped the peloton soon after the start of the stage, later building up a sizable advantage of around three and a half minutes as they reached first big climb of the day, the Monte Grappa.
From there, the group began to fall apart with Vacek, Gaudu and others falling off the pace, while Nicola Conci led at the front.
Back in the peloton, Egan Bernal animated things with a savage attack, leaving everyone but Isaac del Toro and Richard Carapaz behind, with Thymen Arensman and Derek Gee later bridging their way to the trio at the top of the climb.
With just a minute separating the Bernal group from the leaders, Frigo attacked along the descent, subsequently opening up a 30-second gap.
As the sole survivor of the early breakaway, Frigo led the race into the valley, clinging to just a 15-second margin. But, attacks soon came to join the Italian, with 10 riders including Verona, Romain Bardet (Picnic PostNL) and Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) making their way across.
Verona saw his chance to attack at foot of the final climb, quickly drawing out a minute advantage, alarming Gianmarco Garofoli (Soudal Quick-Step) and Filippo Zana (Jayco AlUla), who set off in pursuit.
Back in the peloton, Carapaz looked to stir up his GC rivals inside the last 30km. The Ecuadorian lept from his saddle and kicked away twice, each time followed by Del Toro, and distancing Roglič, while Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike) picked up the baton, by which time the Slovenian was trailing a minute off the back.
Back up front, Verona continued his charge into Asiago, ultimately seizing the stage honors in solo fashion.
“I knew I had to do it from far. I’m not really fast, I’m actually quite slow,” he said afterwards. A loyal domestique turned Grand Tour stage winner, the Spaniard covered his face in disbelief as he crossed the line.
