Andrea Vendrame (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) attacked a nineteen man break with about 25km remaining to take a solo win in Stage 19 of the 2024 Giro d’Italia. It is his second win of the 2024 Giro. Pelayo Sanchez finished second for his second podium placing and Georg Steinhauser coming across third.
The maglia rosa group took the day off before the race’s final two stages, finishing safely nearly 16 minutes back. Tadej Pogacar continues to dominate the GC.
The Corsa Rosa landed in Friuli Venezia Giulia with the Mortegliano-Sappada, which could be the last chance to see a victory from a breakaway.
The peloton, 143 riders strong, crossed the KM 0 at 13.24. Nick Schultz (Israel – Premier Tech) did not start today.
The route travels up the Valle del Tagliamento, passing San Daniele del Friuli, Forgaria nel Friuli and Peonis. Past Tolmezzo, the riders will take in consecutive ascents to Passo Duron, Sella Valcalda and Cima Sappada, followed by a short descent leading to the finish. The roads, both up and downhill, are narrow and have a lot of bends.
As TV coverage went live, the race was led by a group of nine riders. Jhonatan Narvaez (Ineos Grenadiers), Quinten Hermans (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Andrea Vendrame (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Enzo Paleni (Groupama-FDJ), Jasper Stuyven, Edward Theuns (Lidl-Trek), Pelayo Sanchez (Movistar), Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep), Luke Plapp (Jayco AlUla) and Mattia Bais (Team Polti Kometa). Simone Velasco (Astana Qazaqstan), Mikkel Honoré, Georg Steinhauser, Michael Valgren (EF Education-EasyPost), Dries De Pooter (Intermarché-Wanty), Alessandro De Marchi (Jayco AlUla), Jan Tratnik, Tim Van Dijke (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) and Manuele Tarozzi (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè) were just seconds back and the two groups ended up merging into a supersized break.
Not sure about details, but commentators are making it sound like the first 70km of the race were fairly tumultuous.
It’s safe to say that with Julian Alaphilippe and Jhonatan Narvaez in the break, the peloton will not be sitting easy today. Neither has a prayer of taking over the lead, but the optics are still important for Pogacar.
As the race entered the final 64km, the gap was 8 minutes back to the peloton. The leaders were making their way up the Category 2 Passo Duron climb. Alaphilippe was forcing the pace with only Steinhauser, Narvaez and Sanchez able to hold his wheel. Just behind was a chase group of Hermans, Vendrame and Tarozzi.
The gap had slid out to nearly 11 minutes with 40km to go.
Narvaez, Hermans, Vendrame, Steinhauser, Sanchez and Alaphilippe were now leading the race and Velasco, Valgren, Plapp, Bais, Tratnik and Tarozzi 40 seconds behind.
The Sella Valcalda passed quickly and the climb to the Cima Sappada was underway. 25km to go and the lead was nearly 13 minutes.
Andrea Vendrame attacked the break and went solo with Narvaez, Steinhauser, Sanchez, Alaphilippe and Plapp chasing. Vendrame had a 28″ advantage with 20km to go and opened it to 58″ with 15km remaining.
Vendrame continued to open his gap, but Steinhauser and Velasco were chasing. The steepest ramps of the climb were still ahead, though.
As the stage came to an end near the 5km mark, the course merged onto the Sappada cycle track. The roadway here was slightly narrower with a mild downhill gradient.
3km to go, and no one was going to catch Vendrame.
The route turned right at the 2 km mark, and the pitch went up (reaching 10%) one last time.
The gradient eases out to 5% in the urban area, until the last kilometre, and then the road descends for a few hundred metres up to the home straight (400 m), on 6 m wide tarmac.
Vendrame rode safely through the finish to take his second stage win of the race.
Stage 19 Brief Results
- Andrea Vendrame (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) @ 3h 51’04”
- Pelayo Sanchez (Movistar) @ 54″
- Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-EasyPost) @ 1’05”
Speaking seconds after the stage finish, the stage winner Andrea Vendrame said: “I had been aiming for this stage since the start of the Giro. It was important to get into the day’s breakaway, and I tried to save energies the whole day. I attacked on the descent, taking a risk, saw that I had a good lead and kept pushing. It’s a special emotion because I won close to my home”.
General Classification After Stage 19
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates)
- Daniel Felipe Martinez (Bora – Hansgrohe) at 7’42”
- Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) at 8’04”
“The whole Giro in general has been great in terms of respect to each other,” said Pogacar in the press conference. “We saw it today, when Geraint Thomas crashed, no one wanted to do anything stupid. It was a nice moment, not for Thomas but for cycling. For more than fifteen years, I’ve known that a crash can happen anytime. You need to be focused and try to anticipate eventual crashes. It was an easier day for us as a team so tomorrow we can control the race from the start and put a good pace on the first climb. Tomorrow is the last chance to have a stage win for climbers”.
Jerseys
The leader jerseys of the Giro d’Italia are produced and designed by CASTELLI.
- Maglia Rosa, leader of the General Classification, sponsored by Enel – Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates)
- Maglia Ciclamino, leader of the Points Classification, in collaboration with Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale and ITA Italian Trade Agency – Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek)
- Maglia Azzurra, leader of the Gran Premio della Montagna (KOM), sponsored by Banca Mediolanum – Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates)
- Maglia Bianca, Best Young Rider, born after 01/01/1999, sponsored by Eataly – Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious)
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