In Fossano, this Monday, after an eventful final on stage 3, Laurence Pithie was able to take part in his first bunch sprint in a Grand Tour. Although he was in a good position in the final straight, the young New Zealander did not have the legs to compete for the very first spots. He ultimately finished seventeenth, but a new opportunity will come already on Tuesday.
After a tiring first weekend, the Giro d’Italia was supposed to get calmer this Monday. From Novara to Fossano, the sprinters did not want to miss their chance across the 166 kilometres on the menu. This also led to a strange scenario from kilometre 0. “We thought there would be a breakaway from the start, as usual,” said Frédéric. “But the teams knew that it was very likely that it would finish in a sprint, and that going into a 3 or 4-man breakaway was useless. This is why we had a very calm start.” The peloton set a very easy tempo, and no breakaway attempt therefore took place before approaching the only classified climb, after sixty kilometres. Lilian Calmejane then went to grab the points, then the peloton got back together before the race took a completely different turn with 80 kilometres remaining. “We got to the intermediate sprint, in which almost all the sprinters took part,” added Frédéric. “There was a technical descent right after, and they immediately started pulling with teammates. The gap quickly rose to more than a minute and there was a bit of panic in the back. We weren’t in the right move, but other teams weren’t either, so we hoped that the others would bring us back, and that’s what happened. It brought action to the middle of the stage and also woke us up a bit, because we weren’t really into it.”
“The team did a great job”, Laurence Pithie
Due to a frenetic chase, the peloton even split in two for some time. After an hour of extremely intense racing, it finally came back all together, but with way more tired bodies than forty kilometres earlier. “Once everything was back to normal, we had to work for the sprint and that’s what the riders did very well,” added Frédéric. “All the guys did a great job.” Thanks to the support of his teammates, and a final turn from Fabian Lienhard, Laurence Pithie was able to start the small climb (1.8 km at 4.2%) located four kilometres from the line in the first ten positions. “The team did a great job to put me in front and keep me in position,” explained the Kiwi. “I lost a little bit of positioning on the climb, but I managed to find my way back to Lewis, and he did a great job to put me in a good wheel with one kilometre to go.” At that point, Tadej Pogacar and Geraint Thomas, who attacked a few moments earlier, were still leading the race. The duo was finally caught with 400m to go, as the sprint started. “Unfortunately, I didn’t really have the legs,” said Laurence. “It just wasn’t very good on my behalf, but the team did a great job.”
On the line, the young man had to settle for seventeenth place, while Tim Merlier claimed victory. “If we keep going like this, there is no reason we couldn’t get a result,” said Frédéric. “It was only the first sprint and it’s a new lead-out train for Laurence. It would have been amazing if we had got everything right from the first stage. It’s encouraging, everyone worked hard, and everyone is in good shape. On to tomorrow!” “I think I can learn from today, and hopefully have better sensations in the coming days,” concluded Laurence. “Tomorrow is another day!”
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