Dries de Bondt (Alpecin-Fenix) continued a strong showing for his team in the race, securing the squad’s third win for this year’s Giro with a narrow win over Edoardo Affini (Jumbo-Visma) after a strong quartet of riders denied the sprinters in Treviso.
De Bondt, Affini, Magnus Cort (EF Education-Easypost) and Davide Gabburo (Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè) were never given a long leash by the peloton, but they managed to pull out a superb effort in the final 50 kilometres to extend their lead on a climb before hanging in on the flat to enter the final kilometre with the sprint for the win to be decided between them.
Affini launched his sprint first, and it required a tenacious effort from De Bondt to come over the top to win.
“The collaboration between the four of us was magnificent – there was no moment of doubt, nobody skipped one turn. It was full, full, full to the line.” de Bondt said.
“They predicted this was going to be a sprint stage, and for sure [Arnaud] Démare (Groupama-FDJ), [Mark] Cavendish (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl, [Alberto] Dainese (DSM) or [Phil] Bauhaus (Bahrain Victorious) was going to win – it was written in the stars.
“But we made a plan between the four of us and we stuck to the plan and pulled it off.”
Before the stage, there was the announcement of the withdrawal of fourth-placed overall João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates), the white jersey holder as best young rider contracting COVID and kept out of the race as a result.
The team were at pains to point out their COVID prevention regime which would limit the spread of the virus among the team.
“Almeida woke up last night from persistent pain in his throat and the test gave a positive result,” said Michele De Grandi, UAE Team Emirates doctor at the Giro d’Italia. “We observe strict rules of prevention and, in addition to sanitizing the environments which the team uses each day (cars, buses, hotel rooms, etc.), we keep the athletes themselves in single rooms in order to limit very close contacts. However, despite these precautions they clearly do not provide 100% shelter as we have seen.”
The stage got underway without Almeida and it was a relatively straightforward formation of the breakaway, with Magnus Cort (EF Education-EasyPost) De Bondt (Alpecin-Fenix), Edoardo Affini (Jumbo-Visma) and Davide Gabburo (Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè) quickly gaining two minutes.
The sustained pace kept behind by UAE Team Emirates kept the quartet’s advantage under wraps, with the main bunch wary of the strong group’s chances.
The gap would hover between one and two minutes for most of the day with sprinters’ teams in charge, until the sharp climb of the Muro di Ca de Poggio saw the leaders eke out an extra lead with 45 kilometres to go, pushing out to two minutes and 50 seconds ahead of the peloton with 45 kilometres remaining.
From there it was a concerted chase from the teams of the sprinters, so fast that it caused splits in the peloton, with the biggest casualty former race leader Juan Pedro Lopez (Trek-Segafredo). The new young rider leader with the abandonment of Almeida, Lopez was caught behind the split and lost time dramatically, ceding 2 minutes and 43 seconds to the rest of the riders on the top 10, also bringing his new white jersey under threat, with Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) now just over five minutes behind the Spaniard.
The battle for the stage continued apace, with the break’s lead being dragged back too slowly in the final kilometres with the good cooperation of the group paying dividends as they entered the final kilometre with 25 seconds lead on the charging peloton.
Cort was stuck on the front in the run to the line, but Affini launched the sprint first, jumping with over 200 metres to go to try and hold a long effort to the line. De Bondt was right on his wheel before stepping out and having just enough pace to pass the Dutchman and then hold him off to claim his first Grand Tour stage win.
Affini was second, with Cort third and Gaburro fourth, while 14 seconds later the peloton’s fastest finisher was Alberto Dainese (Team DSM) for fifth.
Australian Jai Hindley (BORA-hansgrohe) had a late scare with a puncture, but it came within the final three kilometres, and he was awarded the same time as the bunch and so remains three seconds behind race leader Richard Carapaz (INEOS Grenadiers).
The Giro d’Italia heads back to mountains with a brief visit to Slovenia for a GC battle on Stage 19. Watch the race on SBS On Demand from 8.00pm AEST, with the television coverage of the race starting from 11.00pm AEST on SBS. WA viewers can watch from 9,00pm AWST on SBS VICELAND.
