The Giro entered the real mountain on Wednesday, in the heart of the Italian Alps, and Kilian Frankiny took the opportunity to once again show his climbing qualities. The Swiss rider from the Groupama-FDJ cycling team seized his chance as he got into the right breakaway and then proved to be one of the strongest in the final climb of the Madonna di Campiglio. He eventually took a fine fifth place, which is his second top-5 on the Giro. His teammates finished almost 40 minutes later in the gruppetto.
“I wanted to take my chance”, Kilian Frankiny
Between Bassano del Grappa and Madonna di Campiglio, 200 kilometers and three big passes made up the first very big mountain stage of the Giro on Wednesday. Although the course appeared quite rough, it was not enough to slow down some riders eager to be in front today. Therefore, the fight for the breakaway was quite hard during the first hour, which was fully done on a flat terrain. So it was only when the first climb arose, the Passo Durone (21 km at 6.7%), that a group managed to break away. Among the attackers, we could notice the Swiss rider from Groupama-FDJ, Kilian Frankiny. “This is the second time that I had carte blanche on this Giro, and I wanted to take my chance,” explained the Swiss climber. “I really wanted to be in the breakaway and so I gave my best in order to do so”. “It was not easy,” said Benoit Vaugrenard. “The group went out in the first climb after a good fight”. Although nineteen riders initially managed to create a gap, the peloton did not immediately decide to let go, and the leading riders had to earn their position in front. It wasn’t until the peloton had reduced to 40 riders or so that Deceuninck-Quick Step stopped the chase, allowing the day’s breakaway to develop.
From then on, the gap gradually increased and later stabilized around eight minutes. “In the beginning, the cooperation was good, despite the fact there were four Movistar and 3 NTT,” said Kilian. “We knew they were going to try something anyway.” After the second climb of the day, Monte Bondone (20 km at 6.6%), Dario Cataldo indeed attacked from the breakaway on his own. “I told Kilian not to panic, and not to do too much,” said Benoit Vaugrenard, who was following him from the car. “Kilian is so kind that he gives too much sometimes, and then he gets fooled. He needs to learn to be a little less generous and to observe more carefully who is around him.” Prior to the Passo Durone, Cataldo eventually saw nine men coming back on him, and the Groupama-FDJ rider was not one of them. “It’s the day’s drawback”, explained Benoit. “He missed that move, and it cost him a bit. He ended up coming back to the leading group, after chasing for fifteen kilometers, but that required some effort that was unnecessary. We know that at this level, you have to save as much energy as possible”.
“It’s a good thing for Kilian”, Benoit Vaugrenard
About 30 kilometers from the finish, after crossing the penultimate climb of the day – the less difficult one -, Kilian Frankiny made his comeback to the front. “It was almost unexpected,” he said. “I even thought at one point it was over for today, but I finally made it back.” He was therefore with fourteen other riders when he started the final climb of the Madonna di Campiglio (9.5 km at 6.7%). “From the bottom to the top, I just kept my pace,” he explained. “I had a lot of pain in my legs, but luckily it wasn’t just me. At the start of the stage, I told myself that it was really going to be a very complicated day. So if I had been told I would finish fifth, I wouldn’t necessarily have believed it”. “In the last climb, it came down to strength”, said Benoît. “We know Kilian doesn’t like accelerations too much, so he really took his own pace and it gave him a nice fifth place at the end. It’s a good thing for him. In the two stages where we let him free, he got fourth and fifth. It just goes to show that he knows how to take his chance, which is interesting, even if there was again stronger for the win today”. On Wednesday, Australia’s Ben O’Connor took the victory after his second place the day before. With the cyclamen jersey on his shoulders, Arnaud Démare crossed the line with his four other teammates more than fifteen minutes before the time limit. “They managed their stage very well, with a good mood,” concluded Sébastien Joly. “Despite the two twenty-kilometre climbs, they never got stressed out. Sagan was with them in a group of about 30, and there was no problem. “
On Thursday, the Giro goes on with another big mountain stage that will take the riders to the top of Passo dello Stelvio (2746m), if the weather conditions are good enough, before a finish in Laghi di Cancano.
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