photo credits @ ToTA
Simon Carr (EF Education-EasyPost) won the final stage of the Tour of the Alps today, after the British rider jettisoned his fellow breakaway companions with just over 26 kilometers to go, claiming a solo victory in Brunico.
Carr had been part of a large breakaway group that fractured on the final climb of the Mühlbach, attacking mid-way up the ascent, and later opening up an advantage of 40 seconds that increased to almost a minute until the finish.
Meanwhile, Tao Geoghegan Hart secured the overall race victory thanks to his Ineos Grenadiers team that controlled the peloton throughout the stage, finishing 22 seconds up on EF Education-EasyPost’s Hugh Carthy.
Race Highlights
A large breakaway group containing Edoardo Zambanini (Bahrain-Victorious); Simon Carr and Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-EasyPost); Juri Hollmann (Movistar Team); Matteo Fabbro and Florian lipowitz (Bora-Hansgrohe); Geoffrey Bouchard, Nicolas Prodhomme, Valentin Paret-Peintre, Andrea Vendrame (AG2R-Citroen); Luis Leon Sanchez and Antonio Nibali (Astana Team); Omer Goldstein (Israel-PremierTech), Luca Covili (Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizane); Ådne Holter, Johannes Kulset and Magnus Brynsrud (Uno-X Pro Cycling Team); Damien Howson and Gianluca Brambilla (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team); Txomin Juaristi and Enekoitz Azparren (Euskaltel-Euskadi); Jose Felix Parra (Equipo Kern Pharma), and Moran Vermeulen (Team Vorarlberg) finally got underway in today’s 144.5 kilometer stage from Cavalese to Bruneck.
As the breakaway reached the Mühlbach climb, the group was holding onto a 3 minute advantage over the peloton, with Ineos-Grenadiers leading the chase.
Shortly thereafter, Carr executed his winning move, while Max Poole (Team DSM) and Matthew Riccitello (Israel-PremierTech) attacked from out of the peloton in an attempt to bridge their to the lead group. But, the duo was quickly reined in.
With 19.5 kilometers to go, Carr remained out front with a 37 second advantage ahead of the breakaway, while the peloton lingered as far back as 4 minutes.
With 11 kilometers remaining, Carr had increased his lead to 1:30, while fighting hard on the descent to keep the chasers at bay.
With 5 kilometers left, Carr’s victory was sealed, as the EF Education-EasyPost rider continued with a fast pace along the flat roads that were flanked by green fields and dandelions, later soloing across the finish in proud fashion.
Despite almost getting boxed-in by Bora-Hansgrohe’s Lipowitz, Carr’s teammate Steinhauser won the sprint for second, while Fabbro took third for the German squad.
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