Giro d'Italia: Arnaud Démare takes stage 7

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Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) took his second consecutive sprint victory and his third in this year’s Giro d’Italia in Brindisi, again benefitting from his team’s superb lead-out and his own speed and confidence to win from the front. 

Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) managed to take Démare’s wheel in the sprint but lacked the courage to challenge him along the barriers and lacked the legs to come past him. Sagan waved his arm after the finish, indicating the Frenchman had moved across the road. He had, but not enough for the UCI judges to punish him.   

Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) was third several bike lengths back, with Ben Swift (Ineos Grenadiers) fourth.

“Having fantastic teammates made the difference today. It was amazing what they did for me,” Démare said of his now well-drilled and highly efficient team.

“It was a very fast stage with echelons and then a tailwind and lots of crashes. It was very nervous. Fortunately things calmed down but it was also a fast sprint. There was a lot of wind until four kilometres to go and the final was twisting, making it difficult to move up. I waited a bit to open up my sprint and saw Sagan was behind and ready me. But it was okay, it was perfect.”

Early echelon attacks split the peloton sparked a high-speed day of racing with the peloton setting a new record of 51.23kph for a Giro d’Italia road stage.

The early echelons saw Jakob Fuglsang (Astana), Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe), Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), Pello Bilbao (Bahrain McLaren) and Domenico Pozzovivo (NTT Pro Cycling) stuck behind and fearing for their overall hopes. Fortunately a determined chase and a drop in the wind allowed them to get back but made for a nervous day of racing. 

João Almeida was well-protected by his Deceuninck-QuickStep in the echelon attacks and finished in the same time as the sprinters to keep his maglia rosa for another day.

Sometimes it was really scary, especially in the final, everyone was nervous and wanted to be at the front. But I have a perfect team and they did a perfect job. I think the maglia rosa makes me stronger, mentally too and tomorrow is another day in pink.” 

How it unfolded

The riders gathered in the centre of Matera for the sign-on of the 143km stage, protected from the strong northern wind but fully aware the stage could be a day of echelon racing. 

Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) was the first to attack on the climb out of Matera and he was quickly joined by Josef Cerny (CCC Team), Marco Frapporti (Vini Zabù-KTM) and Simon Pellaud (Androni Giocattoli) to create the early break. 

The peloton eased but then on more exposed roads, Deceuninck-QuickStep and Jumbo-Visma hit the front and sprinted into the cross wind, sparking chaos and panic. The peloton lined out and then eventually snapped as the speed touched 70kph. The stage was alive after just half an hour of racing. 

A front echelon of 30 or so riders formed, with Jumbo-Visma and Groupama-FDJ there in numbers and Deceuninck-QuickStep en masse to protect the race leader João Almeida. Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ), Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates), Elia Viviani (Cofidis), Michael Matthews (Sunweb), and Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) were in the front group and so a high-speed pursuit match ensured on the road to Taranto. 

Vincenzo Nibali was there with a Trek-Segafredo teammate but Jakob Fuglsang (Astana), Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe), Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), second placed overall Pello Bilbao (Bahrain McLaren), Domenico Pozzovivo (NTT Pro Team) and Harm Vanhoucke (Lotto Soudal) were all caught behind. 

For a while the 30 riders up front worked smoothly together and committed to the effort but the chasers also refused to give up, with Astana and then Lotto Soudal leading the chase. 

A change of direction south turned the side wind into a tailwind. That and the pain of a hard first hour of racing split the chase group but allowed Fuglsang’s group to get back on. 

Soon after, Yates and the rest also managed to enter the protected slipstream of the peloton. The panic was over but those caught behind knew they had got out of jail.    

The rider through the sheltered streets of Taranto allowed everyone to catch their breath. However a crash in the centre of Taranto raised the tension yet again. 

More attacks were expected on the exposed roads towards Brinidisi. However, the olive groves and wheat fields often protected the riders and this time nobody was going to be caught by surprise. The speed stayed high and the leading teams stayed vigilant but only minor riders were allowed up the road.      

With 45km to go a stack-up in the peloton on a straight highway as the barriers created a pinch point. Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier (NTT) and Filippo Ganna (Ineos) went down, but soon got going, even if they would never see the front again. However, the crash caused another split and another chase, with Vanhoucke, Pozzovivo and Ilnur Zakarin (CCC Team) forced to chase. Lotto Soudal did the work for Vanhoucke and eventually made contact with 20km to go. 

Deceuninck-QuickStep bossed the peloton, sniffing for any final chances of echelons but everyone else was thinking about the sprint. 

Jumbo-Visma rode to protect Steven Kruijswijk in the centre of Brindisi on the loop through the streets and then Groupama-FDJ took over in the final two kilometres. Démare - racing in the cyclamen-coloured points jersey instead of French national champion’s red, white and blue - was always protected and well-placed and only needed to open up his powerful sprint to secure victory number three at the 2020 Giro d’Italia and his 12th win of the season.