May 18/16 10:42 am - Giro d'Italia: Stage 11

Posted by Editoress on 05/18/16
 

Diego Ulissi doubles up at Asolo
Bob Jungels consolidates his lead in the overall ranking

Attacks by the GC contenders on the only climb of stage 11 paved the way for a brilliant move by the race leader Bob Jungels. Wearing the Maglia Rosa, the Luxembourger chased down second-placed Andrey Amador, whose acceleration posed a threat to the top of the general classification. Diego Ulissi then bridged the gap to the attacking duo, and his fast finish brought him his second stage win of this 99th Giro d'Italia.

Stage Details:

183 riders cast off from Modena at 11:50 am. The mayor of the city, Gian Carlo Muzzarelli, drops the flag.

The pace was high from the very beginning. Nine riders raced clear at km 6: Quinziato, Moser, Howard, Kluge, Berlato, Vorobyev, Boaro, Pozzato and Zhupa.

At km 11, they are 28s up the road; at km 13: 40s; at km 19: 34s; Lampre and Bardiani CSF riders are leading the peloton. At km 27, the gap is 54s; at km 30: 48s.
The peloton won’t let the break go too far: at km 39, the gap is 38s.
The bunch draws even nearer: at km 43, the break is only 7s up the road; the peloton bunches up at km 44.

A few attacks and counter-attacks break out, but the peloton still runs all together.
Average speed after one hour of racing: 51.400 km/h.

Laengen, Vorobyev and Bertazzo race clear at km 72; the peloton does not react this time. At km 75, the three front riders are 1:43 up the road; at km 81: 5:42; at km 85: 8:00; at km 93: 10:25 (maximum gap). Dumoulin (Tga), the first Maglia Rosa of the 99th Giro d’Italia, abandons the race around km 95.

Average speed after two hours: 49.700 km/h.

At km 101, the gap is 10m; Trek-Segafredo riders are setting the tempo of the chasing bunch. At km 118, the gap is 8:20; at km 130: 6:57; at km 139: 5:57.

Average speed after three hours: 47.230 km/h.

Intermediate sprint (km 144.7 – Grisignano di Zocco)
Vorobyev claims the intermediate sprint ahead of Laengen and Bertazzo; Demare, Trentin, Delage, Sarreau, Nizzolo and the peloton lag 5’03” behind.

At km 152, the gap is 4’16”; at km 159: 3’31”; at km 161: 3’38”.
Intermediate sprint (km 167.1 – Villa del Conte)
Vorobyev claims the intermediate sprint ahead of Bertazzo and Laengen; Demare, Trentin, Delage, Sarreau, Konovalovas and the
peloton are 3’06” down the road.

At km 174, the gap is 3:22; at the mark indicating 50 km to the finish: 3:28.
Average speed after four hours: 46.400 km/h.

With 40 km remaining to the finish, the break is 3:02 up the road; with 35 km to go: 2:48. The bunch splits after a crash involving a large number of riders. With 30 km to go, the three front riders are 2:08 up the road. With 25 km to go, the first chasing bunch
(including the pink jersey) lags 1:05 behind.

The route starts to climb towards Forcella Mostaccin. Laengen takes a pull and holds on alone. The pink jersey’s peloton draws nearer: with 2 km remaining to the summit, the gap is down to 36s. Lampre riders are setting the pace. Some riders, including Greipel, are in trouble. Bertazzo is caught up first, followed by Vorobyev. Laengen is caught up too, just a few metres before the summit.
KOM (km 207.7 – Forcella Mostaccin – m 374 – 4th category)

Kruijswijk clears the climb ahead of Valverde and Chaves.
Nibali takes a pull along the descent, followed by Valverde and Chaves: the three build a maximum 8” lead on Uran, Formolo, Jungels, Amador, Kruijswijk, Zakarin and Majka, but they are soon caught up. Amador counter-attacks, followed by Jungels, the Maglia Rosa.

With 10 km remaining to the finish, Jungels and Amador are leading by 11s on the first chasing bunch (approx. 30 riders); with 6 km to go, the gap is 10s; -5 km: 7s. Ulissi takes a pull and catches up with the leading duo with 4 km remaining to the finish. The three front riders are 15s up the road, with 3 km to go; -2 km: 8s.
At the red flag, the gap is 9s

Jungels ups the pace once more. The stage ends in a 3-man sprint.

FINISH (Asolo– km 227)
Ulissi nails a second stage win, after the one in Praia a Mare; Amador and Jungels finish in second and third, respectively;
Nizzolo claims the sprint for the fourth place (at 13s down), ahead of Colbrelli, Trentin, Modolo, Battaglin and the others;
Pozzovivo is 1:30 down the road.

Quotes

Stage winner, Diego Ulissi, declared during the press conference: "In my first pro years, I used to remain very passive and I was often switched off towards the end of the races. But now, I'm much more switched on. Therefore the team's motivation to work for me is higher. I've realized what my strengths are and I have the courage to attack. This morning, we studied the race route, then we agreed with Sacha that he'd wait for a possible sprint while I'd follow the attacks. I went after [Andrey] Amador and [Bob] Jungels. It proves that my first stage win at the Giro this year [stage 4] was no fluke".

The Maglia Rosa, Bob Jungels, said in the press conference: "The crash took out a lot of guys from our team and from other teams too. I hope nobody is hurt. After that, when [Andrey] Amador attacked, I had to follow him. When [Diego] Ulissi came across, I had almost no more chance to win the stage, so I decided to go for the seconds. I don't think I'll be able to do as well at this Giro as Tom Dumoulin did last year at the Vuelta but I'm feeling really good. I'm just going to do my thing and we'll see how far I can go in the mountains".

Visiting the Giro, the champion of MotoGP Dani Pedrosa declared: "I'm happy to be here at the Giro d'Italia. I have a big passion for cycling. As often as I can, I follow the races wherever I am. I ride myself. At the Giro there are many Spanish riders who can do well. The fans of MotoGP will be able to see me in action on Sunday at Mugello".

Courtesy Giro d'Italia

Results from stage 11 in Italy