The final into Fossombrone on Saturday proved less successful for Thibaut Pinot than the one to Gran Sasso d’Italia the day before. In the final climb of stage 8 of the Giro, the Frenchman lost contact with the main favorites and eventually crossed the line one minute after Primoz Roglic, the first of the GC contenders, and almost thirty seconds after the pink jersey Andreas Leknessund. The Groupama-FDJ leader now sits in eighteenth place overall, 3’01 behind the leader, as a long 35-kilometre time trial will conclude the first long week of the Giro tomorrow.
It seemed clear on Saturday morning, at the start of Terni, that the breakaway was most likely to go all the way on stage 8 in the Marches. As usual in this kind of situation, the fight to get into it was therefore extremely intense, and it lasted for nearly sixty kilometres. Unfortunately, Lars van den Berg wasn’t there to take part in it, as he did not take the start due to illness. Jake Stewart did get involved in the battle, including in the first climb of the day, but a 13-man group eventually went without Groupama-FDJ riders after more than an hour of struggle. Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), Carlos Verona (Movistar), Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech), Valentin Paret-Peintre (AG2R-Citroën), Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo), Warren Barguil (Arkéa-Samsic), François Bidard (Cofidis) Filippo Zana (Jayco-AlUla), Alessandro Iacchi (Corretec-Selle Italia), Alessandro Tonelli (Green Project-Bardiani), Mattia Bais (Eolo-Kometa), Samuele Battistella (Astana) and Oscar Riesbeek (Alpecin- Deceuninck) took a five-minute lead and headed to the final climbs with the possibility of fighting for the stage win. The fight was however cut short as Ben Healy attacked in the first I Cappuccini climb, fifty kilometres from the finish, and went solo from there on.
“Thibaut can bounce back”, Sébastien Joly
Within the peloton, the selection was gradually made from the back, but Bruno Armirail and Stefan Küng were still with Thibaut Pinot after the first two climbs of the final, within a bunch of around forty riders. In the final climb of I Cappuccini (2.8 km at 7.8%), the pace got harder from the bottom on, and Primoz Roglic quickly launched an attack. The favorites found themselves one by one, and Thibaut Pinot could not hold the wheel of the best. After a final downhill towards Fossombrone, he crossed the line 1’02 behind Primoz Roglic, Geraint Thomas and Tao Geoghegan Hart, 48 seconds behind the world champion Remco Evenepoel and 28 seconds behind the pink jersey Andreas Leknessund. “Thibaut had a bad day”, explained Sébastien Joly. “It happens, it happened to others, but we also know that despite a bad day, Thibaut can bounce back in the coming days. Tomorrow, he will make sure to limit his losses in the time trial. Then, the rest day will allow him to recharge his batteries, and there will be other opportunities next week”. Before thirty-five kilometres against the clock, the French climber is in eighteenth place overall, 3’01 from the leader and 1’07 from the top-10.
No comment