Italian rider Diego Ulissi won a three-way sprint to take his second victory in the 2016 Giro d’Italia on Wednesday as Bob Jungels held onto the overall leader’s pink jersey after the 11th stage.
Launching a late attack to catch the leaders, Ulissi then edged Andrey Amador and Jungels at the line in a stage that also saw overall favorites Vincenzo Nibali and Alejandro Valverde in action on a high-speed descent.
Riding for the Lampre team, Ulissi clocked nearly five hours over the 227-kilometer (141-mile) route from Modena to Asolo, which was mostly flat until a hilly finale that made it seem like a single-day classic.
Ulissi also won the fourth stage, while this was his sixth victory overall at the Giro and the 21st of his career.
”Everybody was kind of tired at the end. I was concerned about Amador but I’ve done it again,” Ulissi said.
Jungels, a Dutch rider with the Etixx-Quick Step team, leads by 24 seconds ahead of Valverde, with Valverde’s Movistar teammate Amador third, 1:07 behind.
Tom Dumoulin, the Dutchman who won the opening time trial and wore the pink jersey for six days, dropped out of the race midway through the stage due to saddle sores.
Three riders – Vegard Stake Laengen, Anton Vorobyev and Liam Bertazzo – formed a breakaway midway through the stage and opened up a gap of more than 10 minutes at one point.
There was a mass crash with about 30 kilometers to go and Evgeny Petrov of the Tinkoff team had to have his collarbone examined before continuing. The crash caused the bike of IAM rider Leigh Howard to end up in a road-side canal and several of Nibali’s Astana teammates were also held up.
The pack caught the breakaway on the way up the Forcella Mostaccin climb with 20 kilometers (12 miles) to go then Nibali attacked on the technical descent and was followed by Valverde.
As the road flattened out and a small lead pack formed, Amador attacked and was followed by Jungels wearing the pink jersey he picked up a day earlier.
”I didn’t know the maglia rosa (pink jersey) could give me so much power and inspiration,” Jungels said. ”When I saw the opportunity to get away from the group of favorites, I made my move. At the end I tried to gain as many seconds as I could in order to keep the Maglia Rosa as long as I can.”
Steven Kruijswijk is fourth overall, 1:07 behind, and Nibali is fifth, 1:09 back.
Remaining in the Veneto region, Stage 12 on Thursday is an entirely flat 182-kilometer (113-mile) leg from Noale to Bibione that could be one of the final opportunities for sprinters.
The serious mountain stages begin Friday.
The 99th Giro ends May 29 in Turin.
Stage 11 Brief Results:
- Diego Ulissi (Italy / Lampre) 4:56:32″
- Andrey Amador (Costa Rica / Movistar) ST
- Bob Jungels (Luxembourg / Etixx – Quick-Step)
- Giacomo Nizzolo (Italy / Trek) +13″
- Sonny Colbrelli (Italy / Bardiani Valvole)
- Matteo Trentin (Italy / Etixx – Quick-Step)
- Sacha Modolo (Italy / Lampre)
- Enrico Battaglin (Italy / LottoNL)
- Tim Wellens (Belgium / Lotto)
- Alejandro Valverde (Spain / Movistar)
General Classification After Stage 11:
- Bob Jungels (Luxembourg / Etixx – Quick-Step) 45:16:20″
- Andrey Amador (Costa Rica / Movistar) +24″
- Alejandro Valverde (Spain / Movistar) +1:07″
- Steven Kruijswijk (Netherlands / LottoNL)
- Vincenzo Nibali (Italy / Astana) +1:09″
- Rafal Majka (Poland / Tinkoff) +2:01″
- Ilnur Zakarin (Russia / Katusha) +2:25″
- Esteban Chaves (Colombia / Orica) +2:43″
- Gianluca Brambilla (Italy / Etixx – Quick-Step) +2:45″
- Diego Ulissi (Italy / Lampre) +2:47″
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