Former junior and U23 World Champion Matej Mohoric (Bahrain-Merida) took his first Giro d’Italia stage victory after opening his Grand Tours account at La Vuelta last year.
The longest stage this year was an eventful one with runner-up Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott) losing contact with the main peloton on the first climb and finishing with a deficit of 25 minutes, whereas his teammate, Simon Yates, increased his overall lead as he won the intermediate sprint awarding a time bonus ahead of Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ).
Yates Extends Lead
G.C. leader Simon Yates extended his lead at the Giro d’Italia, taking bonus seconds at an intermediate sprint on a brutal stage 10.
Yates extended his advantage as teammate Chaves fell out of overall contention after losing contact with the main bunch on the first climb. Mitchelton-SCOTT will re-direct their efforts to a sole leader.
“You don’t really know how the body responds after a rest day, I am very dissapointed for him (Chaves) but hopefully he can bounce back and get a few stage wins,” Yates said after the stage.
“I was going to go for the bonus seconds, and once I saw Pinot was lining up with the team to do a lead out for the sprint I came behind him and managed to beat him in the sprint. I am going to need every second I can so maybe I need to start sprinting for more than bonus seconds.
“We will still approach the race in the same way, there’s many more difficult stages to come so we will see how it goes.”
“Hurts,” Says Chaves
“It hurts. That’s my general classification at this year’s Giro gone, so it’s always going to hurt.”
“I have to thank the team for everything they did to try to bridge the gap, but with all the other teams working against us, we had to call it and save our legs for the bigger picture.”
“Simon is still in the lead and he is looking strong. We don’t have each other to play off, but we still have a strong team. Our strategy might change, but our final goal doesn’t. We will pull our shoes on again tomorrow and get back to work.”
“Special Day” for Mohoric
“It’s such a special day,” exulted the young Slovenian rider. “It was a very long and tough stage. I marked in red it when I saw the route of this year’s Giro” explained Mohorič. “We planned to go in the break of the day and I tried at the start with a group of seventeen riders, but then when the peloton saw that Esteban Chaves dropped, they began the chase full gas. In the final I still felt great and I asked to Pozzovivo the permission to go. It was quite hard and I was not so confident to be able to win, but I’m tried my best in the final sprint. I did it and I’m super happy for me and for Team BAHRAIN MERIDA. A stage win was one of the aim here at the Giro, together with the General Classification. Now I will focus on helping our leader Domenico in the next days”.
Nico Denz “Feeling Strong”
“In the end, Mohoric showed that he was stronger than me,” said Ag2R-La Mondiale’s Denz after the stage. “He deserves this victory. There is nothing else to say about it. I have now finished second in a stage of the Giro d’Italia, my best result at a UCI WorldTour race, but I am disappointed to be so close.
“Since the beginning of the race, I have felt really strong. This morning, during the briefing, I was assured that it was the right time to try something. The stage was very fast all day, but I felt that the sensations were really good. So I figured it’s now or never.”
Third For Bennett
Sam Bennett of the BORA-hansgrohe team won the sprint out of the chasing peloton, finishing third on the day.
“It was a hard day in the saddle, the pace was high and the attacks were started right from the start,” Bennett said after the stage. “We were able to stay together in the main bunch and our two GC contenders didn’t lose so much time in the overall. We couldn’t close the gap as the two riders went up the road in the finale, therefore I finished third. I also want to thank the guys for their super efforts today. The result may not show it but they rode out of their skin. I would have liked to get the win for their efforts. Tomorrow will be another stage and we will give our best like in the previous days.”
The Numbers
First win at the Giro for Matej Mohoric but Slovenians have won at least one stage since 2014: Luka Mezgec in stage 21 to Trieste in 2014; Jan Polanc in stage 5 to the Abetone in 2015 and stage 5 to Etna in 2017; Primoz Roglic in stage 9 to Greve in Chianti (ITT) in 2016.
With five days in the Maglia Rosa, Simon Yates leads the British riders leading the Giro, leaving Mark Cavendish behind with four jerseys. Adding together the Giro and the Tour, it’s the 100th day in the lead for British riders since Tom Simpson first took the yellow jersey on 5 July 1962. Cavendish was the first British leader of the Giro d’Italia on 9 May 2009.
Young stage winners at the Giro this year: Matej Mohoric, 23, after Richard Carapaz, 24, and Simon Yates, 25.
Second-placed Nico Denz was close to giving Germany an anniversary to celebrate: on 15 May 1932, Herman Buse became the first German stage winner (in Udine) and the first German leader of the Giro d’Italia.
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