Giro d'Italia: Caleb Ewan storms to victory on stage 7

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Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) struck out with over 150m to go to take his second victory of the Giro d’Italia on stage 7. The Australian timed his sprint to perfection, coming around Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) after the Colombian had attacked well before the line.

Davide Cimolai (Israel Start-Up Nation) and Tim Merlier (Alpecin-Fenix) completed the top three in a super technical and slightly uphill finish. Gaviria faded with sixth on the line with Dylan Groenewegen (Jumbo-Visma) finishing a further place back. 

Attila Valter (Groupama-FDJ) retained his overall lead in the race.

Ewan was the first rider to react when Gaviria tried to catch his rivals unaware and the UAE rider opened up a brief gap as the majority of the sprinters were left to fend for themselves after the uphill run had sapped them of their leadout men. 

Once Ewan made contact with Gaviria he kicked again for a second time and opened up a winning gap that Cimolai was unable to close. 

Lotto Soudal provided Ewan with another excellent leadout, positioning him near the front inside the final 1,000m but the Australian still had much to do inside the final few hundred meters. He kept calm when Gaviria accelerated, and used the Colombian’s slipstream on the slightly uphill finish, while Peter Sagan saw his chances cut short after he was boxed in.

Bora-Hansgrohe were well-positioned inside the final 4km. A tough headwind meant that teams had to judge their efforts to perfection and the three-time world champion, along with Ewan, still had support inside the final 2km and when Francesco Gavazzi attacked with just over 1km to go it was Sagan’s teammate Daniel Oss who marked the move and then set the pace before Gaviria burst from the pack. 

However, Ewan was proved once more that he was the fastest rider in this year’s race, and his victory provided Lotto Soudal with their 30th Giro d’Italia stage win. It was another team effort for the Belgian, who kept their sprinter at the front through a very technical finale but his burst of speed was unmatched for the second time in a week.

"I had all my guys there from a long way out because there were a few points in the last 10km we really needed to be in the front so we don't have to brake and we got a really good ride," Ewan said at the finish.

"They did a really good job. The most important point for me was the start of the climb because if I got a free run thru there and a good run up the climb then I save a lot of energy. If I had to come from far back it would have cost me a lot for my sprint. It was a super hard finish anyway.

My legs were absolutely burning in the end because I was sprinting from 450m to go - it was a slight uphill - it was a tough one. If it was anyone else [Gaviria- ed] we would have waited a little bit but when he goes, he has the strength and speed to hold it. I had to do it tactically - I didn't want to accelerate super hard at the start, I left a gap a little bit, and around 200m to go I had a gap to run in and then I really accelerated. There's a lot more I want to do in cycling and I'm happy that every year I can come back here and still perform well. I hope it continues like this in the future and I'm always super motivated to get as many stages as I can."

How it unfolded

Stage 7 of the Giro d'Italia saw the peloton take on a 181-kilometre route from Notaresco down the Adriatic coast to Termoli, the last chance for the sprinters to get a win on board ahead of two uphill finishes at the weekend.

The stage profile offered a tougher day than the previous sprint stages, the pan flat stages 2 and 5, but was still flat enough for all the sprinters present at the race to make it to the finish. A fourth-category climb in Chieti (4.7km at 5.9 per cent) was the only difficulty of the day, coming after 62.5 kilometres, though the finish was far from straightforward, with a 200-metre, 12 per cent section at 1.5 kilometres to go and an uphill drag to the line and seven corners in the final two kilometres.

It didn't take long for the break of the day to get away, with three riders jumping away at the earliest opportunity as the peloton rolled out of Notaresco. Umberto Marengo (Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè) was out front for the third time in the race, and the Italian was joined by Simon Pellaud (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec) and Mark Christian (Eolo-Kometa).

The trio managed to ride off with no resistance from the peloton, who were happy to let them go considering the unlikeliness of them holding their advantage to the finish. They quickly got a gap of five minutes after just 15 kilometres, and so the stage was set.

Marengo and Pellaud were having something of a duel for the Fuga Bianchi prize, with the Bardiani man lying just 20 kilometres short of Pellaud's 244 kilometres spent in breakaways so far in the Giro, and the Swiss rider taking the classification lead after 25 kilometres of action. Back in the peloton, meanwhile, a mix of sprint and GC teams commanded the peloton, with Groupama-FDJ working on behalf of the first Hungarian to wear the maglia rosa, Attila Valter.

Pellaud led the way up the Chieti climb, taking three points for the mountain classification and another for the combativity prize, which he already led. By then, their advantage has fallen under three minutes, but at over 100 kilometres out from the line, there were no worries about getting brought back.

Marengo led over the first intermediate sprint at Crecchio, taking 12 points classification points as well as 10 for the traguardo volante (intermediate sprint) prize and five for the combativity prize. Pellaud's second place saw him gain the lead of the latter two competitions, too. Back in the peloton, Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) added five points classification points for his maglia ciclamino campaign.

At that point, the peloton had closed to within a minute of the break, but they let the gap grow out soon after, content with half the stage still to go. 30 kilometres later, the leading trio rolled over the second sprint at Fossacesia Marina, with Marengo grabbing the meaningless bonus seconds and a cash prize.

Soon after, as the riders reached the final 50 kilometres, the gap went down again, as the sprint squads took to the front in anticipation of the finish. By the 30 kilometres to go mark, it was down under a minute once again, with Cofidis, UAE Team Emirates, Jumbo-Visma and Alpecin-Fenix among the squads doing the work.