Daan Hoole stormed to Lidl-Trek’s fourth victory of the Giro d’Italia, upsetting the odds to beat overwhelming time trial favourite Josh Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers) to win stage 10 in Pisa.
The Dutch champion completed his ride within the first hour of the time trial, beating previous hot seat occupier Ethan Hayter (Soudal-QuickStep) by 10 seconds to set a time of 32:30 with an average speed of 52.8kph.
Tarling, who set off two minutes after Hoole finished his ride, was quickest at the first checkpoint in Pontetto but faded as his ride went on. He shed 24 seconds to Hoole after the first checkpoint and eventually crossed the line seven seconds down to surprisingly miss out on the win.
Tarling’s time of 32:37 put him three seconds up on Ethan Hayter (Soudal-QuickStep), who finished five minutes later, leaving the two Britons to fill out the podium behind Hoole.
Italian riders Mattia Cattaneo (Soudal-QuickStep) and Edoardo Affini (Visma-Lease A Bike) rounded out the top five with times of 32:53 and 32:54, with the quintet the only riders to break the 33-minute barrier on the day.
"It didn't sink in yet, I cannot believe it. I'm full of emotions, and I want to thank so many people. It's crazy," Hoole said after his stage win, the second victory of his career and first at WorldTour level.
"I was aiming for this day. I was feeling good all week, but to win, I never thought about it. The GC guys had rain, which changed a lot, but I'm still happy I could beat Tarling in the same conditions. It's an insane feeling," he added.
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"[Tarling is] one of the best time triallists in the world. I think he started super fast, and when I saw his first intermediate time, I was thinking it would be hard to beat. I did a good second part and took some time back. Maybe he exploded a little bit. It's crazy, I cannot understand it yet. Victory in the Giro is so special. I'm so happy."
Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates) held the maglia rosa (Image credit: Getty Images)
Late rainfall around Pisa meant that the GC contenders, starting some two hours later than the podium trio, had no chance of realistically challenging for the stage victory. With the rain starting to fall during Primož Roglič’s (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) ride and getting heavier as time progressed, it meant that only the final seven or eight riders had to deal with the very worst conditions.
Despite the downfall, maglia rosa Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) came home with a time of 34:52, 2:22 off Hoole in 37th place, to defend his race lead. The 21-year-old Mexican held off his teammate Juan Ayuso, defending his 1:13 race lead as the Spaniard put 48 seconds into him to finish in 22nd with a time of 34:04.
The pair ceded time to Roglič, who had recovered from his spill in the pre-stage recon. The Slovenian, who benefited from racing in slightly drier conditions 25 minutes before the UAE pair, came home with a time of 33:45 for 17th place, making up a potentially valuable 19 seconds on his main pink jersey rival Ayuso.
The new general classification sees Del Toro lead Ayuso by 25 seconds, with Roglič now in fifth place at 1:18.
Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) set a strong time of 34:23 for 26th to keep his podium battle alive. The Italian now lies 1:01 off the race lead in third overall, while Simon Yates (Visma-Lease A Bike) is fourth overall after racing to 23rd place with a time of 34:13.
How it Unfolded
Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) battling for time gains in the overall general classification (Image credit: Getty Images)
The Giro d’Italia kicked back into action on Tuesday following the second rest day with the second time trial of the race, a 28.6km time trial between the Tuscan cities of Lucca and Pisa.
One small hill, at Foro di San Giuliano, marked the midpoint of the largely flat route, while two checkpoints lay in Pontetto at 8.3km and Asciano at 20.5km. Following stage 7's summit finish at Tagliacozzo and Sunday’s trip over the strade bianche on stage 9, the day would bring another GC showdown.
With riders heading out in reverse GC order, however, there’d be a three-hour wait for the maglia rosa contenders to start their rides. Instead, Michael Hepburn (Jayco-AlUla) set the quickest early time, topping the timesheets with times of 10:24, 24:04, and, at the finish, 33:20.
Hepburn, the ninth man off, was beaten by the 22nd, Ethan Hayter as the Briton set a finishing time of 32:40. Shortly afterwards, time trial specialists Josef Cerny (Soudal-QuickStep) and Edoardo Affini (Visma-Lease A Bike) came and went with times of 33:54 and 32:54 respectively.
It wasn’t until Daan Hoole set off as the 43rd rider that Hayter’s time would be beaten. The Dutch champion, second at the first checkpoint, improved as his ride went on, going quickest at the second checkpoint before finishing with a time of 32:30 to take over the hot seat.
Several big hitters began their rides after an hour of racing, with Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla), Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease A Bike) and Josh Tarling all setting off in swift succession.
Josh Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers) entered the stage as a major favourite (Image credit: Getty Images)
Plapp (10:08) and Van Aert (10:09) were both quick at the first checkpoint, but Tarling was far quicker, hitting the first checkpoint in a time of 9:49. He shed four seconds to Hoole over the hill at the second checkpoint, but was still on course to beat Plapp (33:14) and a slowing Van Aert (33:39) at the finish.
He wouldn’t beat Hoole, however, instead losing three more seconds on the run into Pisa to cross the line in second place with a time of 32:37. A minute later, Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) came home in fifth in 33:07, a time which might have been even better but for an early bike change.
What followed that flurry of stage contenders was a period of quiet as various domestiques and no-hopers completed their runs before the GC men got underway in the final hour. After Tarling and Vine, the wait for another rider to crack the top 10 would last almost an hour as 56 riders completed their rides.
Italian pair Marco Frigo (Israel-Premier Tech) and Mattia Cattaneo (Soudal-QuickStep) were the next men to make the top 10, setting times of 33:17 and 32:53, respectively.
The GC battle
The top 20 GC riders would be along shortly afterwards, with Max Poole (Picnic-PostNL) and Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech) both putting in solid runs with times of 33:34 and 33:30 to place themselves just outside the top 10 places.
Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek), meanwhile, flew at the start of his ride, going second at the first checkpoint. The rain started falling in Pisa shortly afterwards, however, meaning that none of the late riders would trouble the very top of the timesheets.
Vacek decided it wasn't worth the risk and backed off, while the remainder of the GC men were noticeably slower in the latter kilometres, leaving Hoole ever more comfortable in the hot seat.
All eyes were on Primož Roglič after his crash in the recon earlier in the day. The Slovenian, who missed out on stage 2 victory by a second, was 20th at the first checkpoint and 18th at the second before crossing the line in 17th place with a time of 33:45.
Isaac del Toro had a wealth of support on today's stage (Image credit: Getty Images)
His time was better than most of the GC men, with nobody else really troubling it before his main rival Juan Ayuso set off second last. Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) on 33:58, Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) on 34:24, and Simon Yates on 34:13 all put in solid rides, however.
Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) was one of the unlucky few to crash during his ride, the Colombian champion falling before the first checkpoint and coming home down in 64th place, 2:58 off Hoole.
Antonio Tiberi started off the final trio with a solid ride, the third-best of the top 10 on GC. His time of 34:23 kept him third overall at the end of the day. Ayuso was off next, recording 33rd at the first checkpoint, eight seconds down on Roglič, before improving over the mid-section of the stage to go 12 seconds up on the Slovenian.
The heavy rain at the finish, however, put paid to his hopes of gaining more time on the 35-year-old, with the slowed run-in to Pisa seeing him shed 31 seconds between the second checkpoint and the finish line.
Del Toro, last off, was out to fight for his pink jersey, and he managed it. He lost 26 seconds to Ayuso at the first checkpoint and was 43 seconds down at the second.
The rain equalised their times over the final section, though, with Del Toro only shedding a further five seconds into Pisa and thus hanging on to the maglia rosa.
Juan Ayuso racing to the finish in Pisa in grim conditions (Image credit: Getty Images)
Dani Ostanek is Senior News Writer at Cyclingnews, having joined in 2017 as a freelance contributor, later being hired full-time. Her favourite races include Strade Bianche, the Tour de France Femmes, Paris-Roubaix, and Tro-Bro Léon.
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