Caleb Ewan of the Lotto Soudal team came out on top in one of the last opportunities for sprinters in the 2019 Giro d’Italia. Ewan bested Stage 10 winner Arnaud Demare of the FDJ and BORA-hansgrohe’s Pascal Ackermann, who was a question mark for today’s stage after a nasty crash yesterday.
At 221km from Capri to Novi Ligure, today’s stage was longer than yesterday, but still with a profile that look more like the edge of a ruler than like a saw. The only excitement was a slight rise in the road at the finish that had the possibility of adding some interest to the sprint.
Like yesterday, a break formed almost immediately with Marco Frapporti (Androni-Giocattoli-Sidermec), Mirco Maestri (Bardiani-CSF) and Damiano Cima (Nippo-Fantini-Faizanè) flying their team colors today. The gap ran out to about five minutes while FDJ, Lotto Soudal and Deceuninck-QuickStep all taking their time leading the peloton.
As Cima takes the first intermediate sprint, the gap back to the peloton dropped to about two minutes.
The catch takes place with about 25km left on the road.
Italian national champion Elia Viviani is the fan favorite to take the win today, as rumor is that he’ll drop out of the race tonight, but there are plenty of other contenders. Mitchelton, Movistar, Bora, QuickStep, Soudal are all making moves at the front. CCC was in there, too, along with Dimension Data.
FDJ briefly held the front with Guarnieri but BORA’s Selig towed Ackermann by, leaving Demare to try and get on the train, but Ewan got there first. Ackermann went too early, but Ewan was in the perfect position in the slipstream and punched clear from around 150m to claim his second win.
Speaking seconds after the stage finish, the stage winner Caleb Ewan said: “A longer stage today suited me a bit better than yesterday with the other sprinters having sore legs. I followed Pascal Ackermann’s wheel because I knew he’d still be good [despite his crash yesterday]. He had a good lead out so it was a good wheel to sit on. I timed it right. I always considered myself one of the top sprinters. Two stage wins prove that I am really one of them.”
The race leader Valerio Conti said: “It was a long and sunny stage. So I enjoyed it very much. Tomorrow it’ll be harder to keep the jersey because the main climb is a hard one. But I want to keep the Maglia Rosa tomorrow also.”
Stage 11 Brief Results:
- Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal 5:17:26
- Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ) s.t.
- Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) s.t.
- Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-QuickStep) s.t.
- Davide Cimolai (Israel Cycling Academy) s.t.
- Simone Consonni (UAE Team Emirates) s.t.
- Ryan Gibbons (Dimension Data) s.t.
- Giacomo Nizzolo (Dimension Data) s.t.
- Jakub Mareczko (CCC Team) s.t.
- Sean Bennett (EF Education First) s.t.
General Classification After Stage 11:
- Valerio Conti (UAE Team Emirates
- Primoz Roglic (Team Jumbo-Visma) at 1’50”
- Nans Peters (AG2R La Mondiale) at 2’21”
- José Rojas (Movistar Team) at 2’33”
- Fausto Masnada (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec) at 2’36”
- Andrey Amador (Movistar Team) at 2’39”
- Amaro Antunes (CCC Team) at 3’05”
- Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) at 3’27”
- Giovanni Carboni (Bardiani CSF) at 3’30”
- Pello Bilbao (Astana Pro Team) at 3’32”
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