photo credits @ ToTA
Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) made it back-to-back wins in the Tour of the Alps today, after the British rider beat Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious) in a drag race to the finish in Ritten.
Haig was the only rider who was able to hold onto Geoghegan-Hart’s wheel through the final tight bends. But, the Australian rider couldn’t find the reserves to come around his rival to snatch the victory, and had to settle for second.
Meanwhile, Haig’s teammate Santiago Buitrago took the final podium spot at two seconds back, having been the rider to shred the lead group to nine on the final climb.
As a result of today’s victory, Geoghegan-Hart consolidated his lead in the overall standings, where he has a gap of 22 seconds on Hugh Carthy (EF Education-EasyPost) and of 28 seconds on his teammate Pavel Sivakov.
Race Highlights
An early climb in today’s 165.2 kilometer stage from Reith im Alpbachtal to Ritten, initially prevented any breakaway effort from forming. But, Simon Carr (EF Education-EasyPost) and Moren Vermueluen eventually rode clear, subsequently building up an advantage of just over a minute, before being joined by Sergio Samitier (Movistar), Sebastian Schonberger (Austria) and Juaristi Txomin (Euskaltel-Euskadi) some 68 kilometers later.
Carr later showed his strength over the uncategorized climb in Feldthurns, where he dropped everyone but Samitier. Schonberger managed to rejoin on the descent, while Vermeulen and Txomin were distanced for good.
With its average gradient of 8% for 4.5 kilometers, the Barbiano marked the day’s first categorized climb, where Carr once again inflicted more damage, first dropping Schonberger then kicking again to dispatch Samitier, reaching the summit alone with 14 kilometers remaining and a lead of 1:25 over a peloton.
Carr continued his effort onto the Monte di Mezzo, but it wasn’t too be, as he was wound in by a reduced peloton of 40 riders with 7.5km remaining. By then, De Plus had taken the reins of Ineos’ mountain train, with Sivakov, Thomas and Geoghegan Hart in the wheels. That continued until 500 metres from the top of the climb, when Buitrago burst clear and led over the top, shattering the reduced bunch.
Sivakov paced Geoghegan Hart back on the plateau over the top, with 3.5 kilometers to go, as the elite group of nine prepared to dip down and contest the finish. The road started to drag back uphill with 1 kilometer to go, where Cepeda launched an attack. Buitrago went after it and Geoghegan Hart left Sivakov to follow the wheels, but there was a lull and things came back together, with Sivakov returning to the front and taking them towards the running track, where Geoghgean-Hart once again showed the fastest legs despite the chaotic finish.
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