photo credits @ Giro d’Italia
Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) claimed stage 7 of the Giro d’Italia today, sealing victory on the race’s first summit finish in Tagliacozzo, commencing a late attack 550 meters from the finish, leading home his teammate Isaac Del Toro for a one-two victory for UAE, while Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) finish in third, having attacked inside the final kilometer.
Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates) attempted a breakaway early in the stage, but his aggressions were quickly shutdown. From there, Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon-AG2R), Gianmarco Garofoli (Soudal-QuickStep), Alessandro Tonelli (Team Polti-VisitMalta), Paul Double (Jayco-Alula), Manuele Tarozzi (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizane) and Christian Scaroni eventually escaped the peloton, who were later joined Gijs Leemreize (Picnic-PostNL).
The escapees went on to establish an advantage of just half a minute as the riders passed through Campo di Giove, later stretching their gap out to two minutes ahead of the Monte Urano climb.
With 73 kilometers remaining, the breakaway had increase its lead to 3:30 as they approached the 10 kilometer climb of the Vado della Forcella climb. However, with 33 kilometers to go, their lead had been reduced to 1:20.
Back in the peloton, riders from Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team had moved to the front to set a fast pace for Thomas Pidcock, while riders from UAE Team Emirates did the same for their team captains Adam Yates and Ayuso.
The Tagliacozzo climb later took its toll on the breakaway, with Leemreize, Double and Scaroni getting dropped, while Bahrain-Victorious led the chase, eventually reining in the rest of the breakaway group with 5 kilometers left.
As the race entered the final climb 2.5 kilometer climb, riders from Ineos-Grenadiers and UAE Team Emirates made their way to the front, while Giulio Ciccone attacked for Lidl-Trek with 1.3 kilometers remaining, a move that was quickly marked by Egan Bernal (Ineos-Grenadiers), as did Roglič and Ayuso.
However, Bernal attacked again and again, before Ayuso made his winning move, a late surge that proved insurmountable for his rivals to match.
