What seemed possible today, could not be either. Lennard Kämna distanced himself on the descent of Teglio. And one by one, in this order, they released him on the climb to the Valico di Santa Cristina: Thymen Arensman, Jan Hirt and Hugh Carthy. The years do not forgive… But to applaud the effort of an Alejandro Valverde who, from the escape, made us dream that he could end the drought of victories that Spanish cycling drags in grand tours (91 stages without winning). It could not be. Hirt got his first Grand Tour win with his third conquest in 2022 and brought joy back to a starless Intermarché after Girmay’s surreal retirement. The battle between the roosters resulted in a Blockhaus 2.0, with Richard Carapaz and Jai Hindley (the Ecuadorian is the leader with only 3 seconds to go) as the strongest and a Willful Mikel Landa approaching the podium after cutting a few seconds on João Almeida. The options, for any of the four, remain intact.
Until Sonny Colbrelli, Present at the imposing starting stage in the vicinity of Lake Garda, he wanted to see in situ a stage whose route was one of those that made one tremble: 202 km, four ports and 5,250 meter drop accumulated. How could it be otherwise? Mathieu van der Poel attacked the first exchange, but as in previous days failed to open a gap. The definitive escape was consolidated in Goletto di Cadino (1st), the first port of the day where twenty men of the quality of Poels, Kämna, Arensman, Kelderman, Bouwman (he reinforced his leadership with the Azzurra jersey), Martin, Carthy, Fortunato, Hirt, Yates, Ciccone, Vansevenant, Formolo and Valverde, among others, they began to open a gap with respect to the leaders of the general classification.
The Mortirolo selected the head of the race, or formed the ‘fugue of the fugue’, whichever you prefer, with the ‘Bala’ giving a lesson in cool head. He barely entered the relay and, both he and the other escapees, left the toast to the DSM, who with Hamilton and Arensman had numerical superiority. From behind, not without suffering, managed to link Hirt and Carthy before reaching the top. In the group of roosters there were no attacks, but there was an unexpected movement: the Astana set a strong pace for Nibali with which he reduced the numbers of men like Landa, Carapaz and Almeida. The intention was clear… Il Scualo it was launched in the descent as in the old days, in a descent (for the hard part of the port if we talk about ascent) Extremely dangerous, technical and narrow road. At the exit of a right-hand corner, Pozzovivo went down and managed to make contact again after falling behind after more than 1 minute. Finally, Carapaz made him want in the chase and, with all the capos at his wheel, he managed to catch Nibali before completing the descent. The leader acting as the leader.
Nobody wanted to take advantage of the uncategorized elevation of the Teglio (5.6 km at 8.2% and ramps of up to 16%), but Landa put his team to the block and the advantage of the leading sextet (Valverde, Kämna, Arensman, Carthy, Poels and Hirt) fell in a tailspin Nevertheless, Kämna fell into an open grave, he left the rest of the escapees with a grain of salt and headed towards victory. What the German did not count on is that the guy with the mallet would arrive, which left the stage win in a matter of two: Hirt and Arensman. Logic prevailed in favor of the Czech, more skilled as a climber, who was not stopped by the wet approach descent to Aprica. Among the roosters, perhaps the most remarkable thing was the sharpener that Landa did with his partner Bilbao, which caused the latter to fall in the final level. Shortly after, Landa made a small acceleration that helped him drop Almeida (at 14 seconds), but not to sprint Hindley (4″ bonus) and Carapaz. Another zero fight. And there are many…
stages
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14 Santena – Turin
Simon Yachts
BEX
147km
Sat. 21-May
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fifteen Rivarolo Canavese – Cogne
Giulio Ciccone
TFS
177km
Sun. 22-May
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16 Salo – Aprica
Jan Hirt
IWG
202km
Mar. 24-May
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17 Ponte di Legno – Lavarone
168km
Wed. 25-May
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18 Borgo Valsugana – Treviso
151km
Thu. 26-May
#Hirt #triumphs #Aprica #contest #favorites