Giro d'Italia: Ulissi wins stage 11

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Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) claimed his second stage victory at this year’s Giro d’Italia after a late attack on the road to Asolo. Ulissi easily beat fellow escapees Andre Amador (Movistar) and race leader Bob Jungels (Etixx-QuickStep) in the sprint to the line.

The ascent of the fourth category Forcella Mostaccin had whittled down the main peloton. However, the race-winning move was initiated after the descent, with 13 kilometres to go. A determined Amador jumped clear of the select group of favourites and was quickly followed by Jungels, concerned about the Movistar rider’s proximity to him in the general classification.

Upon winning stage 4 when the Giro d’Italia returned to its home land, Ulissi praised the efforts of his teammates and they were key again in this win. The Lampre-Merida outfit closed the gap to Jungels and Amador to just seven seconds, giving Ulissi the chance to bridge across to the two. Once Ulissi had made the juncture, the impetus in the chase was lost and the three held onto the finish. Jungels started the sprint but he was little competition for Ulissi once the Italian opened his sprint.

"I came here for a stage win and now I've got two, so I'm very happy - for the team as well because they worked very hard. They chased down the break today and spent a lot of energy doing so. We controlled it well after that - even Modolo worked for me,” said Ulissi. “It was hard on the climb but I'm going well on the climbs at the moment. I can thank Mohoric and Conti for setting me up. I didn't want to wait for the sprint. I managed to save a bit of energy on the downhill bit and was able to use it in the sprint."

With the bonus seconds at the finish, Amador closed the gap by two seconds to Jungels in the overall classification but the Luxembourg rider kept hold of his race lead. “I was expecting an attack from Amador, so I just went with him and in the end I felt really good,” Jungels said at the finish. “I wasn’t expecting that last small cobbled climb, when Ulissi jumped across, and in the end I thought I would go for the stage win, which would be hard in a sprint or I just keep pulling to gain time on the others. I lost two seconds on Amador but I gained a few on the others, which isn’t too bad.”

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How it happened

After a tough start to the second week of the Giro d’Italia, stage 12 provided a flatter day’s racing. It had a sting in the tail, however, with one classified climb in the final 30 kilometres of the stage. Leaving from Modena, the riders would take on one of the longest stages of the race at 227 kilometres.

The big talking point of the morning was what Team Sky would do now that their general classification leader Mikel Landa was on his way home. The Spaniard had expressed his disappointment about his abandon when talking to the media at the team’s hotel before they departed for the stage.

Etixx-QuickStep remained in pink but this time in the form of Bob Jungels. The Belgian outfit and some of the sprinters’ squads martialled things tightly, setting a blistering pace. There were plenty of attacks but with an early average speed of over 50kph it was always going to be difficult for anything to form. Eventually, it was a three-man group consisting of Vegard Stake Laengen (IAM Cycling), Liam Bertazzo (Wilier Triestina-Southeast), Anton Vorobyev (Katusha) that snapped the elastic.

Dumoulin departs

Suitably happy with the composition of the move, the peloton eased up and allowed the trio to enjoy the open road. As they passed through the feed zone at the 94km point, the gap had grown out to eight minutes. As the peloton went through the same section, Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) brought his Giro d’Italia to a close. The Dutchman had been suffering with saddle sores since the weekend and had lost 13 minutes on Tuesday’s stage.

The wind picked up in the second half of the stage and the leading trio saw their lead cut by three minutes before the first intermediate sprint. Vorobyev claimed the full points but, yet again, the big interest came from the chasing peloton. FDJ formed a full lead-out train to help Arnaud Demare close the gap to Andre Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) in the points competition. Matteo Trentin infiltrated the group but Demare managed to hold off the Etixx-QuickStep rider.

FDJ’s fortune would change in a blink of an eye when much of the team, including Demare, got caught up in a crash with just under 30km to go. The crash would also send IAM Cycling’s sprinter Leigh Howard into a small river parallel to the road, while Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R-La Mondiale) and Michele Scarponi (Astana) got caught out. Pozzovivo and his team mounted a furious chase but would ultimately lose time to his rivals.

Meanwhile, the chase was still on in the peloton as the gap to the escapees closed to less than a minute with the only climb of the day. Bertazzo was the first to falter as the road went up and Vorobyev soon followed. Laengen was the last to hold out, finally being caught by a Steven Kruijswijk-led peloton.

With Laengen mopped up, Kruijswijk struck out to take the mountains classification points. His efforts would force a big split in the peloton, with only a few of the favourites able to stick with him. As it had been on stage 8, Vincenzo Nibali, Alejandro Valverde and Esteban Chaves forged on down the descent but they were unable to hold off the chasers once they reached the bottom.

Before many of the dropped riders were able to come back to the leaders, Andrey Amador (Movistar) launched a move with 13 kilometres to the line. Maglia rosa, Jungels was quick to react and tracked down the Costa Rican. Kruijswijk tried to follow suit but it proved too late. Behind the new leading duo, the peloton expanded with some of the sprinters making it back.

Lampre-Merida closed the gap but only by enough to allow Ulissi to make it over to Jungels and Amador. The chasers had the leaders in their sights but the trio managed to hold them off to fight for the victory between themselves. 

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