Giro d'Italia: Fraile cleans up in Bagno di Romagna

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Omar Fraile (Dimension Data) claimed the first Grand Tour victory of his career on stage 11 of the Giro d'Italia, winning from the breakaway with an impressive display in the Apennines, where the medium mountains saw some small shifts in the general classification.

The Spaniard sealed the win in a four-up sprint with Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates), Pierre Rolland (Cannondale-Drapac), and Tanel Kangert (Astana), who finished in that order as the remnants of the large breakaway closed in over the final few hundred metres.

Fraile was part of the 25-man move that formed on the first of four climbs, the Passo della Consuma, on the 161km leg from Florence to Bagno di Romana. An early second-category ascent, it sent the race into chaos and suggested race leader Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) could be in for an exacting day.

But Dumoulin and his teammates regained control on the second climb, the Passo della Calla, as Fraile took off with Mikel Landa (Team Sky) to spend the next 70km in a two-man lead group ahead of the rest of the break. Landa was dropped as soon as things came back together out front, on the long second-category Monte Fumaiolo with 35km to go, but Fraile hung tight and went on the attack over the top as the gradients stiffened.

Rolland went with him, while Costa bridged across half-way down the final descent and Kangert at the bottom, all the while the rest of the break was a tense 14 seconds back on the flat 2km run to the line. That gap came crashing down in the final few hundred metres as the quartet soft-pedalled, but Fraile produced a powerful sprint, impressive for all his previous efforts, and celebrated wildly beyond the line.

"I'd dreamed about a win like this for a long time. It's great to finally pull it off," he said.

"I'd noticed that this stage suited me very well. I went on the attack early and went with Landa because we knew we could gain some ground. When they came back up to us, I marked Rui Costa because he's fast but I was even faster today."

Dumoulin held onto the maglia rosa, coming across the line in the third group on the road – a select GC group that contained all of the contenders save for Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) and Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo), who were dropped when Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) attacked on the steep gradients towards the top of the final climb.

Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) went clear from the group over the top of the climb but was reeled in on the descent, and they came to the line together, 48 ahead of Thomas and Kruijswijk. Their losses paled in significance compared to those of Tejay van Garderen (BMC) who was dropped on the gentle early slopes of the final climb and ended up losing over 20 minutes, compounding what has been a thoroughly miserable Giro for the American.

The most significant shift GC-wise was Andrey Amador's jump from 9th to 6th, with the Movistar rider spending the day in the break to put 1:37 into the others in the top 10 and strengthen Movistar's tactical hand for the third week. Likewise, Astana's Tanel Kangert made the break and moved from 12th overall up into 8th.

After a chaotic start, Sunweb enjoyed a strong first day in defence of the maglia rosa. They kept things under control on the second and third climbs of the day and found allies on the final climb in Bauke Mollema's Trek-Segafredo and Pinot's FDJ teams, both concerned about Amador. Laurens ten Dam was also in the break and he was called back to guide Dumoulin down the final descent, helping to reel Pinot back.

"The whole team was amazing today. We never got stressed out and we'll do the same day after day to try to keep the pink jersey," said Dumoulin.

"It won't be easy for me to win the Giro but it won't be easy for anyone. For sure it's going to super hard for me too. But I'm happy to get through today's tricky stage. We survived today."

How it unfolded

With just 15 kilometres separating the start line and the fist of the four categorised climbs on the 161km route, many riders were out on the rollers in the Piazza Michelangelo to warm the legs up for a fast start. And it was indeed a fast start, with the peloton all together and led at speed by Movistar onto the 16km second-category Passo della Consuma.

From there, things became chaotic as numerous attacks pinged off and the situation chopped and changed quickly and constantly. The sprinters had been dropped and the peloton was heavily reduced by the time a group of 25 riders moved clear towards the top of the climb.

Laurens de Plus (Quick-Step Floors) and Igor Anton (Dimension Data) were alone over the top, with De Plus taking the maximum KOM points, but they were joined by the 23 others on the twisting descent to Stia.

Movistar had three in there in Amador, José Joaquin Rojas and Jesus Herrada, while Sunweb had Laurens ten Dam, Bahrain-Merida Giovanni Visconti, and Sky Landa and Philip Deignan. Cannondale-Drapac had three stage win hopefuls in Rolland, Hugh Carthy and Davide Villella.

Also in there were Kangert and Dario Cataldo of Astana, Hubert Dupont and Matteo Montaguti of AG2R-La Mondiale, Ben Hermans (BMC), Ivan Rovny (Gazprom-Rusvelo), Tomasz Marczynski, Maxime Monfort (Lotto Soudal), Ruben Plaza (Orica-Scott), Omar Fraile (Dimension Data), Martijn Keizer (LottoNL-Jumbo), Rui Costa and Simone Petilli (UAE Team Emirates), and Simone Andreetta (Bardiani-CSF).

Onto the second climb of the day, the third-category Passo della Calla, and Landa attacked almost immediately, dragging Fraile with him. The two would spend the whole 16km climb out in front together, cresting it (Fraile first) with a lead of two minutes over their former companions.

In the peloton behind, Dumoulin's Sunweb team recovered from the first climb and put four men in front of the pink jersey to regain control of proceedings. They led the bunch the whole way up and were five minutes down on the leaders by the top.

A long, gradual descent followed all the way to the foot of the third climb of the day, the shorter third-category Passo del Carnaio. There was action in the second group as Montaguti put in a brief early attack before Amador tested the group further up, with Carthy, Rovny, and Keizer all dropped.

Fraile led Landa and the race over the top, with 58km to go, to pick up more points, with the now 20-man chase group coming over 2:10 in arrears and the peloton 5 minutes back.

A short descent followed and the riders crossed the finish line before heading out on the final climb of the day, the second-category Monte Fumaiolo – a huge 23km long with a gentle first half but steep gradients in the final few kilometres.

Trek-Segafredo and FDJ began to help Sunweb in the bunch as Amador became an increasing GC threat up the road, and the gap quickly started to fall. The pace, though, was lifting, as Tejay Van Garderen's miserable Giro went from bad to worse as he was dropped from the peloton.

The gap between the leading duo and the chase group was also dropping, and they came together with 40km remaining. Landa tried to string it out but as soon as he was caught he was dropped. Herrada continued to set a stiff pace for Movistar, causing Anton and Marczysnki to be dropped, and the Spaniard himself pulled over to hand the baton to Rojas.

Rojas pulled over 4km from the summit, at which point De Plus put in a strong attack before following a counter attack from Rui Costa along with Rolland. The gradients then stiffened dramatically and the trio opened up a decent gap, but Amador attacked and riders came back. Rolland pressed on alone before being joined by Fraile, who again collected maximum KOM points over the top.

Back in the peloton, Franco Pelizotti hit the front on the steep gradients, teeing up Nibali, and the sparks began to fly as the group thinned and Dumoulin was stripped of teammates. Nibali's surge soon came and while Pinot, Quintana, and Dumoulin followed, Thomas and Kruijswijk were dropped. Pinot had a teammate with him and put him to the front before going on the attack himself, taking a handful of seconds over the top.

Ten Dam dropped back to help guide Dumoulin down the descent, and Pinot was reeled in around 8km down, while later on Deignan was called back to help Thomas try and make it back to the pink jersey group.

A short incline half-way down the descent saw Rui Costa set off in pursuit of Fraile and Rolland, making it a trio out front with 9km to go. They had 10 seconds by the time they hit the flat, whereupon Kangert jumped from the chase group to make it four under the flamme rouge.

As the quartet started to soft-pedal in preparation for the sprint, the chasers came into view but there was just enough of a gap, and there was certainly no pulling back Fraile as he opened his sprint and claimed the biggest scalp of his career to date.

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