Giro d'Italia: Second win for Ewan on stage 11

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Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) claimed his second win at the Giro d'Italia with victory on stage 11 into Novi Ligure. Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) led the sprint out, but the German faded to third place with Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) taking second place and with it the ciclamino jersey.

Valerio Conti (UAE Team Emirates) finished safely in the bunch again to keep a hold of the maglia rosa for another day.

The long finishing straight was not as easy as it first looked with a cross-headwind hitting the riders. With just one more sprint stage after this, and many of the sprinters expected to head home before the mountains, there were plenty of fastmen looking to make their mark on the Giro d'Italia.

Israel Cycling Academy brought the bunch into the final kilometre, but it was the Groupama-FDJ riders that muscled their way to the front and assumed control almost immediately afterwards. Having being involved in a crash in Tuesday's finish, Ackermann made sure to hold his position near the head of the peloton to avoid any potential incidents. He was then brought to the front with just a few hundred metres to go and was the first of the fastmen to wind up their sprint with just over 200 metres to go.

Ackermann dominated the opening sprint stages, but he did not have the power to hold off his rivals on this occasion. Ewan, who won stage 8, used Ackermann's slipstream before moving towards the barriers on the right and quickly moved past the German to take the win. Tuesday's winner, Demare stayed in Ewan's wheel for almost the entire sprint, only moving out as they crossed the line.

Meanwhile, Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-QuickStep) was left without a victory yet again as he could only manage fourth place as he seemed to struggle to match the pace of the other big-name sprinters.

How it happened

After a measly 150 metres of climbing on stage 10, there was a bit more climbing on stage 11 – though you would have needed a spirit level to spot the difference. At 221 kilometres, it was considerably longer than the previous day's offering, but the outcome of a bunch sprint was expected to be the same.

Once again, the breakaway went clear with relative ease as the peloton looked to save their powder for the forthcoming mountain stages at the end of this week. There was one additional rider to make up for the longer distance, making it an escape group of three. Each of the Italian wildcard teams put a rider in the move with Marco Frapporti (Androni-Giocattoli-Sidermec), Mirco Maestri (Bardiani-CSF) and Damiano Cima (Nippo-Fantini-Faizanè) making up the numbers. All three were looking to add to their tally in the breakaway classification, a competition that is currently led by Frapporti.

The peloton was quick to sit up once the trio was up the road and after 12 kilometres they had already built up an advantage of five minutes. They would not be allowed any more than that as several teams were keen to make sure they had a sprint finale.

As the riders approached the first intermediate sprint with just over 70 kilometres remaining, the gap was down to 2:30. There was still enough room for the three to fight it out for the points with Cima riding off the front to take the full complement.

Behind, Démare and Ackermann sought to mop up what is left. Démare led it out, while Ackermann had Bora-Hansgrohe teammate Rudi Selig for help. As he had been in the finish of stage 10, Démare was the strongest with Selig actually beating Ackermann in an error that could come back to haunt him. It would allow Démare to move into the virtual lead in the points classification, but things could change again at the finish line.

There was no contest for the second of the intermediate sprints, from the breakaway or the peloton, as the two groups came closer together. A quick upping of the pace by Lotto Soudal shut down what was left of the gap, and with 25 kilometres to go, it was gruppo compatto, after almost 200 kilometres off the front.

As it had been the day before, the sprint and GC teams moved to block the road, preventing a late breakaway. The pace dropped down again, and it returned to the casual ride that had dominated most of the day for much of the remaining kilometres. There was the odd injection of pace as the bunch negotiated a corner, but the run to the line proved lethargic until Christian Knees (Team Ineos) jumped clear inside the final four kilometres.

It was Fran Ventoso (CCC Team) that did the same the day before, but it was the Spaniard that shut down the move in quick order. With the so few sprint chances remaining, there was big interest in keeping it all together. After a big shift from CCC Team, Conor Dunne (Israel Cycling Academy) that led the bunch under the flamme rouge, but he was soon overtaken by the Groupama-FDJ train.

Bora-Hansgrohe then took over control and Ackermann was the first to strike out, but he faded before the line as Ewan timed his run to perfection. Démare clung to his wheel to take second place and officially move into control of the points classification.

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