Giro d'Italia: Richard Carapaz attacks late for solo victory on stage 11

An expected day for the breakaway on stage 11 of the Giro d’Italia instead brought a minor GC skirmish on the final climb of Pietra di Bismantova, as Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) staged a 9km solo raid to take his fourth career Giro stage victory.

The Ecuadorian sped past the day’s breakaway on the final second-category climb of the challenging mid-mountain stage to little reaction from the remainder of the GC group. He pushed on alone over the top and the remaining 5km to win and move up in the standings.

Carapaz crossed the line in Castelnovo ne’ Monti 10 seconds ahead of the chasing group, which was led home by maglia rosa Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) ahead of Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) to celebrate the 24th win of his career.

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Del Toro spent the day secure in the pink jersey, only adding to his race lead at the finish after coming off Tom Pidcock’s (Q36.5) wheel and leading the GC group around the final corner.

The Mexican led home a group of 17 GC contenders, with Ciccone, Pidcock, and Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) on his wheel, while teammate Juan Ayuso and Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) finished further back in seventh and 12th.

"It was a very difficult stage. On the first climb, so many riders were suffering, and then I knew I had great legs. Then it was just a matter of waiting for the moment to attack," Carapaz said after the stage.

"I chose the right moment, and luckily I was able to hold on until the finish. It was almost a time trial until the finish.

"I want to dedicate the victory to my son, who is celebrating his birthday, and my wife. I hope they enjoyed what I did today.

"I don’t plan on taking it easy, I’m going to keep fighting until the end of the Giro."

With 10 seconds added to his 10-second time bonus, 2019 Giro champion Carapaz now moves up from his previous ninth place to sixth on the general classification, 1:56 off Del Toro.

The race leader heads into stage 12 with an extended 31-second lead over Ayuso, while Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) lies in third at 1:07. Roglič, 1:24 down, has 32 seconds over the resurgent Carapaz.

Despite the breakaway not contesting the finish, having been caught 9km from the line, stage 11 was a big day for maglia azzurra Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS-Astana), who added 58 points to his mountain classification total to end the day with a huge lead on 156 points.

How it unfolded

Stage 11 of the Giro d’Italia was one suited to the breakaway battlers with 3,800 metres of elevation lying between the riders setting out from Viareggio, Tuscany and the finish in Castelnovo ne’ Monti, Reggio Emilia.

Following a largely flat start to the 186km stage, the Alpe San Pellegrino (13.7km at 8.8%) would provide the toughest test of the day, though at 92km from the finish, the first-category climb wouldn’t be decisive.

Instead, the later climbs of Toano (11.1km at 4.9%), 39km from the line, and Pietra di Bismantova (5.8km at 5.8%), 5km out, would have a greater effect on the stage’s final result.

It took some time for the break of the day to get established at the front, with attacks flowing out of the peloton on the flat roads of the opening 70km.

Riders including Mattia Cattaneo (Soudal-QuickStep), Yanis Voisard (Tudor), Alessandro Verre (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), and Jimmy Janssens (Alpecin-Deceuninck) made moves in the opening 40km. A two-man attack from Xabier Azparren (Q36.5) and Steven Kruijswijk (Visma-Lease a Bike) led over the intermediate sprint at Borgo a Mozzano after 46km.

It all came back together shortly afterwards, however, though more attacks came 60km in, on the hill at Barga (3.6km at 5.9%) on the approach to Alpe San Pellegrino. Wout Poels (XDS-Astana) led the moves, while his teammate, mountain classification leader Lorenzo Fortunato, was part of a larger group coming up behind.

Wilco Kelderman (Visma-Lease A Bike) joined Poels at the front going over Barga, while over 20 riders closed in just behind. The groups would merge in time for Alpe San Pellegrino, hitting the start of the climb at 1:40 up on the peloton.

Among the riders coming across were Lidl-Trek duo Mads Pedersen and Mathias Vacek, Visma-Lease a Bike pairing Steven Kruijswijik and Bart Lemmen, plus Jan Tratnik (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Davide Piganzoli (Polti-VisitMalta), Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), James Knox (Soudal-QuickStep), Marco Frigo (Israel-Premier Tech), and Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla).

The group didn’t stick together for long as Fortunato took off at the front 11km from the top of the climb in search of another 40 mountain points. As UAE Team Emirates-XRG pulled in the peloton behind, Fortunato, racing two hours from his hometown of Bologna, pulled out a 30-second lead over the remainder of the break.

Five kilometres from the top, 97km from the finish, a move from Plapp provoked further splits in the break as Quintana, Poels, and Bilbao joined him to make it four chasing Fortunato.

Meanwhile, back in the peloton, Ineos Grenadiers were cooking up something. At 95km to go, Egan Bernal made a move off the front, the Colombian champion swiftly marked by UAE duo Isaac Del Toro and Juan Ayuso.

The acceleration saw both Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike) and his brother Adam (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) among the notable names dropping from the GC group. Roglič looked less than comfortable a day on from his time trial recon crash, too.

All were back on for the descent, however, with the GC group now slimmed down to around 20 riders a minute behind Fortunato, who added 40 points to his previous total of 98 as he led the race across the summit.

A long descent followed, with 42km standing between the riders and Cerredolo, which hosted the day’s second intermediate sprint and the start of the climb of Toano.

Partway down, 81km from the finish, Fortunato was caught by the chasing quartet to make it five out front. Back in the GC group, now almost two minutes down, UAE – with all eight men on the front – continued to control as dropped riders made their way back on.

At Cerredolo, the leading quintet lay 2:15 up on the now-enlarged peloton, with Fortunato leading the group across the intermediate sprint with 50km to run before they began the Toano ascent.

UAE and the peloton were in no rush to get to the top, leaving the break to ride up the climb gaining time as they went. At the top, where Fortunato took 18 points to take his total to 156, the group lay 2:50 down.

On the other side of the climb, maglia ciclamino Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) took over the pacemaking from UAE, cutting 90 seconds from the time gap before the race hit the Red Bull Kilometre at Villa Minozzo, 24km from the finish.

Quintana led the way over the sprint, 1:20 up on the peloton with a short descent and 6km in the valley lying ahead of Pietra di Bismantova and the final run to the line. Another 45 seconds had melted away at the start of the climb with 10km to go.

The break battled on up the day’s final climb, but their time out front was numbered as the peloton closed in and made the catch 9km out. Carapaz attacked past them on the way up, with maglia rosa Del Toro and Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) leading the chase 10 seconds back.

With few behind interested in the chase, Carapaz pulled out a 30-second gap by the top of the climb. UAE settled into the lead of the group without much concern for Carapaz. After all, the 10-second time bonus taken by Carapaz meant that they were in no danger of ceding that time to fast finisher Roglič.

The Ecuadorian duly held on to take the stage win, celebrating as he rolled home with some solid time in the bag. Del Toro pushed to the front to lead home the chase group, adding a valuable six seconds to his lead.

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