Giro d'Italia: Jungels best in Bergamo

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Bob Jungels took the sprint win in Bergamo to claim the 15th stage of the Giro d’Italia. The Quick-Step Floors rider beat out a small select group which had formed in the final kilometres of the stage. It was a hard fought sprint with a surprising second place for Nairo Quintana (Movistar), and Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) in third.

The result for Quintana pulls back six seconds in the overall classification in time bonuses, but Tom Dumoulin was in the group as well, finishing seventh, and so successfully defended his overall lead going into the final rest day. He now leads Quintana by 2:41 and Pinot by 3:21.

The day saw several serious crashes, with the victims including 10th ranked Tanel Kangert (Astana), who hit an unmarked sign in the middle of the road. Quintana also hit the ground in a separate incident but was obviously uninjured.

The decisive move was initiated by Jungels after much work in the final kilometres by Vincenzo Nibali and his Bahrain-Merida team. He closed down the early breakaway, then led over the Bergamo Alto before being joined by the majority of the other top GC candidates. Dumoulin initially missed the split and had to chase across inside the final 2km.

Jungels led under the flamme rouge, then waited as Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) attacked with Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R La Mondiale), but the pair were swept up in the sprint, which Jungels won handily.

"It's pretty good. At the moment it's not so easy to realise but I'm super happy with this victory of course," Jungels said on Eurosport. "I knew that I had good legs today; I was good in the climbs. Also in the final climb, I tried but it was a bit longer than I expected but then in the downhill, I was in a good position. The sprint was perfect. I was on the wheel of Pozzovivo and I started the sprint in the perfect position."

Jungels is the first Luxembourger to win a stage in the Giro d'Italia in some 56 years, but he was more excited to win his first Grand Tour stage.

"Actually, it was the first sprint I've won in a race like this. It's great and a stage in the Giro is incredible and in front of these guys is incredible."

How he will handle the final week still remains to be seen. He has a lead in the young riders classification of 2:25 over Adam Yates (Orica-Scott), and 2:51 on Cannondale-Drapac's Davide Formolo.

"I think I showed the first week that the shape is good. I think I developed myself a little more compared with last year, but I also have to say the level is higher than last year. I'm curious about the last week now if everybody will still be so fresh."

Dumoulin made it through yet another hectic stage of the Giro d'Italia in the maglia rosa, and once again remained unusually calm and confident in his team and his own abilities.

"It was a very fast day, a high average [speed]. We had a breakaway in the front but a lot of teams were not happy with it and they kept on attacking. After 110km, the real breakaway went. It was crazy. It was a really hard final. There were a lot of favourites attacking but we stayed calm," Dumoulin said.

How it unfolded

A longer and easier day than the one before, although it featured two climbs instead of one, stage 15 of the Giro d'Italia, a 199km jaunt from Valdengo to Bergamo's old city looked as if made for a long breakaway, possibly staying away until the end. After about 10 m, a group of five was set: Jeremy Roy (FDJ), Dries Devenyns (Quick-Step Floors), Moreno Hofland (Lotto Soudal), Jan Barta (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Eugert Zhupa (Wilier Triestina).

They got away, but never far. The gap ranged from seven to just over 30 seconds. Numerous riders tried to jump from the field but none was successful. 98km in, Devenyns took off from the group. Only Barta tried to follow but he and the other three faded back into the peloton. After only seven kilometers alone, and never much of a gap, Devenyns was caught as well.

The pace was scorching, as the field covered over 50km in each of the first two hours. The disappearance of the first break group naturally led to the emergence of another. This time it was Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors), Phil Deignan (Sky), Julien Amezqueta (Wilier Triestina), Enrico Battaglin (LottoNL-Jumbo), Jacques Janse van Rensburg (Dimension Data), Silvan Dillier (BMC), Enrico Barbin (Bardiani CSF), Rudy Molard (FDJ), Evgeny Shalunov (Gazprom-Rusvelo) and Simone Petilli (UAE Emirates).

This group pleased the peloton and particularly Sunweb, which massed at the head of the field to control the tempo. Gaviria led the new group to a larger gap, but still barely more than two minutes.

The gap dropped to about 45 seconds as the climbing started. Maglia rosa Dumoulin moved up to the front of the field as his team led the chase. The climb split the group, with sprinter Gaviria giving in and falling back, and soon taking his place in the gruppetto.

Deignan, Moinard, Janse van Rensburg, Amezqueta and Barbin were able to stay away, with the others trailing for a while before being swallowed up. With 42.5 km to go, Pierre Rolland (Cannondale Drapac) jumped from the field and tried to make his way up to the lead group, which had a one minute lead.

The climb took its toll on that lead group and it was Molard, Deignan and Janse van Rensburg at the summit of the cat. 2 Miragolo San Salvatore.

Barbin, Rolland and Amezqueta joined forces in chasing the leading trio. Luis Leon Sanchez escaped the peloton to join them, 34 seconds back with the peloton at another 21 seconds.

There was a moment's scare when Nairo Quintana hit the ground taking a curve on the descent. Sunweb immediately took the speed out and the Colombian was quickly up and going again - as were a couple riders who nearly crashed into the back of the Movistar team car, which parked itself on the wrong side of the road to service Quintana. He soon had to stop again though and get a new bike. Meanwhile, the group around Dumoulin eased up.

"I don't want to take time on competitors when they crash or have a flat tyre or whatever," Dumoulin said. "In that moment it was not really a moment to go full gas. It was a tricky descent. I think the Movistar guy made the mistake himself, he took to the front and he missed the corner and that's why Quintana crashed. It was not really smart of them, but we decided to wait for Quintana to come back."

Quintana made it back with the help of his teammates before racing kicked off again. Orica-Scott and Bahrain-Merida led the way up this second climb, the Selvino (Cat. 3), while up ahead, Rolland took the points at the top. The GC group crossed over only 37 seconds later.

It was a long, dangerous and technical descent, with too many switchbacks to count. The tempo stayed high and fortunately, everyone stayed upright – almost. One curve took out two Cannondale riders, Formolo and Michael Woods, who both got going again, and Kenny Elissonde (Sky), who took much longer to restart.

Arriving at the bottom, the group only had 30 seconds on the peloton. Sanchez again pushed the pace, with Rolland and Deignan working to stay up with the others.

With just over 10km to go, Kangert struck an unprotected sign on an island in the middle of the road, sending him tumbling, and out of the race with a broken elbow.

The lead group took only 16 seconds with them on to the cobblestone roads of Bergamo. There was one final, short but steep climb with about 4 km to go, and Rolland took off as the others were caught. Jungles led the charge to catch the Frenchman and then kept on going, with the streets again lined with fans.

Nibali finally made a move, jumping to join Jungels, along with Pinot, Yates, Pozzovivo Mollema and others. Dumoulin had been caught on the wrong foot but was able to make his way up with 2km to go.

The group came through the 1km marker and set up to sprint. Yates was the first to go but was overtaken with Jungels raising his arms in joy as he crossed the finish line first. Quintana, never known as a sprinter, finished a surprising second.

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