French rider Armirail takes pink jersey at Giro d’Italia

At his first Giro, the 29-year-old Armirail took advantage of the fact that the peloton with the favorites did not react to the escape of a large group. The French rider of the Groupama-FDJ team crossed the finish line 53 seconds behind Denz and easily erased the deficit of almost 19 minutes he had on Thomas.

“I wanted to attack for the stage lead today. I didn’t think I would get the pink jersey,” said Armirail. “Toward the end it started to become real. In the last kilometers I suffered and tried to keep up with whoever I could,” added the first Frenchman to lead the race since Laurent Jalabert 24 years ago.

In the final meters of the stage, with one sharp climb from the Sierra to Cassana Magnago, the two leading groups came together. Five riders sprinted to the finish line for the stage laurel, Denz, who repeated Thursday’s triumph, had the most strength in the end.

“In the end I thought that the effort was pointless because we wouldn’t be able to catch up with the leading group. I didn’t want to finish fourth when I had already won once, so I finished it and then I drove out to catch Bettiol,” said Denz.

The main peloton with Thomas and the Slovenian Primož Roglič, who loses two seconds to Thomas, reached the finish line more than 21 minutes behind the winner. Karel Vacek, the only Czech in the race, was also in this group, to whom the current 93rd place belongs.