Giro d’Italia 2024 Stage 7: Surprising Victory and Classification Updates

Roze Trui: Tadej Pogacar (Slo)

Purple jersey: Jonathan Milan (Ita)

Blues: Tadej Pogacar (Slow)

White jersey: Cian Uijtdebroeks

How did the victory come about?

It was a phase with a very surprising result. This was because not only did the sprinter teams look at each other far too much and too many teams didn’t want to work with them, but also because they were clearly underestimate the four escapes. The fourth got a safe carry 77 km from the end. Too many sprinters counted on Lidl-Trek, Soudal Quick-Step, Jayco-AlUla and Alpecin-Deceuninck to give them the cake. For Alpecin-Deceuninck it was no longer needed with 1200 meters to go, which means you are eleven seconds short.

Although Thomas certainly did not steal the victory of the day. The 28-year-old Frenchman, who lives in Italy, is a five-time world champion on the track. He already won gold in the team race, the omnium and the points race. He also used his track qualities to successfully complete this sprint in his second home country. Thomas not only has an Italian girlfriend, but he also lives in Italy. This was already his tenth victory on the road, but only his first victory on the World Tour.

One kilometer from the end he was almost surprised when the unknown Andrea Pietrobon, who had already been trailing ten kilometers, went out late, but Enzo Paleni caught the villain back, the then Valgren finally closed the gap and then Thomas came out of the flow. of Dan. Admit it, this was another Giro ride that was never boring and that no one could have predicted in advance.

However, the stage started very slowly. As if many would want to take a day off in anticipation of Thursday’s gravel ride. That’s what Lewis Askey, Mattia Bais and Eoghann Costiou were thinking about when they got a free lay after three kilometers. Manuele Tarozzi and Simon Geschke added a nine kilometer race. Even before the two had connected, the young Frenchman Costiou was dismissed by the management of the Arkéa-B&B team. That’s how it is in today’s peloton. But the cartel did not get much direction. However, the four must have regretted their effort, even though their lead was a minute and a half after 25 kilometers.

The people who escaped did not get away because Alpecin-Deceuninck had a better plan. Kaden Groves’ team used the Passo del Bracco, the biggest difficulty of the day, to hurt so many sprinters.

Fabio Jakobsen was the first to board, who was supported by his friend Julius van den Berg and Gijs Leemreize. At 3.3 km from the summit, Merlier took over, but four teammates stayed with him, including Julian Alaphilippe. At 0.9 km from the summit, Caleb Ewan also left the peloton and chose to return with the group Merlier and Gaviria.

Beating the Roodhoofts team meant that the four passed at 111 km from the finish, but at the same time the group joined Merlier again in the descent. And a hundred kilometers from the end, Alpecin-Deceuninck stopped the drive​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Kaden Groves took full advantage in the Ceparana intermediate sprint. 12 points for Australia, 8 for Olav Kooij and six for Jonathan Milan.

At just over 77 km from the finish, Benjamin Thomas, Michael Valgren, Andrea Pietrobon and Enzo Paleni rode away effortlessly. They were given a minute and a half lead, but Lidl-Trek, Soudal Quick-Step and Alpecin-Deceuninck did not allow more. Twenty kilometers from the end, the four still had a one-minute lead, but Lidl-Trek had decided it would be a sprint. Finally Cerny, De Marchi, Calmejane, Affini helped Daan Hoole who did a lot of the running. But it was all butter to the gallows. The peloton made a serious mistake, even with a tailwind. This meant that it did not become the third big sprint in a row, but the attackers beat the workhorses in the peloton. In the end it turned out that all the chess work for Groves had been in vain, because in Lucca he registered a disappointing fifteenth place. The Australians just lost too much energy in the intermediate sprints.

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What did the favorites do?

It was a transition day for the classification riders, as now the gravel stage, time trial and mountain stage to Prato di Tivo continue on Saturday. Since the bonus seconds were shared among those who escaped, everyone stayed in the heart of the peloton.

What did the Belgians do?

Tim Merlier came in eighth and first Belgian. In the sprint for fifth place he had to endure Milan, Ewan and Bauhaus in front of him. The native Wortegem-Petegem is now 45 points behind in the battle for the maglia ciclamino.

Pieter Serry quickly found himself in the position of peloton controller. With Amanuel Ghebeigzabhier who is an employee of Jonathan Milan. Jimmy Janssens also helped in the first hour of racing and – just like the previously mentioned riders – was sent in again when four riders left again after the intermediate sprint. They would not let Alpecin-Deceuninck miss the last chance to sprint for Naples on Sunday.

Quinten Hermans took over the Passo del Bracco in the first part of the stage to throw as many sprinters on board as possible. He joined the peloton up the hill. Timo Kielich helped with that too.

Edeard Planckaert was not only ahead of Kaden Groves in the various intermediate sprints, the Moenenaar took away some points in the Intergiro under the nose of Jonathan Milan.

Edeard Theuns was angry eighteen kilometers from the end because, according to him, they received very little support in the hunt for the four. To his own satisfaction, the correct East Flemish would be confirmed.

Anything else you should know?

* The first Giro week starts as the week in which Tadej Pogacar changed the color of his pants almost every day. After the ‘pants grenade’ banned by the UCI, he now rode in pink pants for the first time. On Tuesday, after a phone call from the World Cycling Federation, he quickly changed to a black one just before the start. After finishing in Lucca he changed clothes again and appeared on the podium again in black bibs.

* We started with 170 riders. Over the past four days we lost six units with Gesink, Dunbar, Welten, Carr, Traeen and Girmay.

* Tobias Lund Andresen fell over an embankment before the official start. Denmark’s lead out of Fabio Jakobsen was still not awake.

* Adrien Petit left the finish line completely empty with just over a hundred kilometers to go. So Intermarché-Wanty loses a second one to the French. That’s bad news for Madis Mihkels, the team’s young sprinter who is the only fast one after Girmay’s loss.

* Christophe Laporte made a strange fall in preparation for the Ceparana intermediate sprint. Did something go wrong with the bike? He continued, scraped badly on the left, but the European champion was immediately eliminated in the lead for the final in Lucca. A little more than ten minutes after his partner Thomas, he arrived bruised and tired, especially on the left side.

* Davide Piganzoli, Alain Riou, Giovanni Lonardi and Riley Pickrell crashed into a traffic island with a high speed traffic sign in the center of a city with 35.5 km to go.

* Ten kilometers later, Attila hit Valter again, falling hard on his shoulder. Nadav Raisberg and Michael Woods were also there, as were Henok Mulubrhan and Lorenzo Milesi, among others.

* Roel van Sintmaartensdijk is not only busy with his first big trip, the Dutchman from Intermarché-Wanty celebrated his 23rd birthday between Genoa and Lucca.

* Lilian Calmejane rode with the blue jersey. It is currently owned by Tadej Pogacar, but as the Frenchman from Intermarché-Wanty has been second since Tuesday, he took over the leader’s shirt from Daniel Felipe Martinez.