Giro d'Italia: Boem takes breakaway sprint to win in Forlì

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Nicola Boem (Bardiani-CSF) took a well-deserved win after out sprinting his breakaway companions into Forlì on stage 10 of the Giro d’Italia. The Italian proved the freshest of a five-man break in the closing kilometres of a pulsating stage that saw the sprinters’ teams miss out and Richie Porte (Team Sky) lose time to his key rivals after a late-race mechanical.

The Team Sky leader eventually came over the line 1:05 minutes down on Boem but lost a crucial 47 seconds to Contador and Aru. He now sits in fourth overall, 1:09 minutes down on Contador.

Boem came home ahead of Matteo Busato (Southeast) and Alessandro Malaguti (Nippo-Vini Fantini), with Alan Marangoni (Cannondale-Garmin) in fourth.

Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) enjoyed a relatively uneventful day in the maglia rosa and keeps his slender three-second lead over Fabio Aru (Astana).

However the day belonged to Boem, 25, who escaped in the early kilometres of the stage with Oscar Gatto (Androni-Giocattoli), Malaguti, Marangoni and Busato.

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Few would have given the five-man group much of a chance with the sprinters’ teams hungry for success after Monday’s rest-day. The profile of the stage was ideally suited for a bunch gallop and with the break unable to establish more than five minutes over the field the level of expectancy for the likes of Greipel, Matthews and Viviani to decide the stage only grew.

Perhaps those factors helped the break, with the peloton underestimating the strength of their adversaries, who with Gatto aside couldn’t scupper together more than 10 wins between them in the collective palmares.

Marangoni hails from the region and Malaguti comes from the finishing town, and the all-Italian break –with only Marangoni from a WorldTour team – contributed evenly throughout the day.

With 45km to go their advantage had been cut to 2:38 but even at that point the peloton held all the power. Lotto-Soudal were on the front, along with Trek Factory Racing and Giant-Alpecin but when the gap held above two minutes it was clear that the break weren’t ready to throw in the towel.
Orica-GreenEdge, Team Sky and Lampre-Merida were all absent from the front of the field and despite Lotto-Soudal’s show of force, the gap remained relatively healthy.

The peloton simply weren’t moving quick enough, a fact represented by the sight of BMC and Ag2r-La Mondiale launching riders from the main field in the closing 15 kilometres. Confidence had turned to panic but the break held firm, even when Gatto punctured with 13km to go.

The Androni rider, the fastest from the break on paper, cut his disconsolate figure as he freewheeled and waited for the bunch after assistance from the team car but his companions had little option but to push on.

With five kilometres remaining the gap was down to just a minute but with the tailwind on their side and the line inching ever closer, the win would come from the remaining four.

Just before the attacks came Porte suffered a mechanical. Team Sky dropped back and, along with Matthews, began to pace the GC rider back towards the field but there was no way back and the Australian continued to lose time all the way to the finish.

Marangoni, meanwhile, launched his move from the breakaway with 1.6km to go. He skipped away and created a gap that initially looked good enough but Malaguti had other ideas, and along with Boem, led the chase.

The Cannondale-Garmin rider was overhauled after the final corner, Boem the first to make the juncture and open up his sprint with the line in sight. Busato desperately tried to latch onto the Bardiani man but the Southeast rider finished a distant second.

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