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sport">Arensman and Hirt turned it into a hand-to-hand fight in the final phase of the very tough mountain stage, which caused a battlefield in the peloton. The Dutchman had to let his opponent go just ahead on the flanks of the penultimate climb – the Valcio di Santo Cristina.
sport">“Physically I feel good, but mentally I am still very disappointed. I would have loved to give everyone in the team back that stage win”, said the 22-year-old cyclist from Team DSM at Eurosport† “Unfortunately that was not the case.”
Kraken
sport">Arensman overtook German leader Lennard Kämna on the steep sections of the third long climb on the way to Aprica along with Hirt. “I then tried to crack Hirt by going full over the limit and making a hole.” However, he was unable to release the Czech and he attacked in turn. “I felt I had to go at my own pace and hoped that I could come back in the descent, but unfortunately.”
sport">The DSM rider started this Tour of Italy by helping leader Romain Bardet for the classification. However, the Frenchman had to get off sick. “I have no classification ambitions,” said Arensman, who rose to twelfth place in the general classification. “Hopefully I get the space to attack and there is still a success in it.”
Monstrous
sport">A monstrous mountain stage awaited the peloton today, with the infamous Mortirolo as the highlight. The question beforehand was: could Bouwman defend his blue mountain jersey against Guilio Ciccone? And did Carapaz keep his pink leader’s jersey?
sport">Reflections beforehand, of course, because in reality things often turn out differently. It was not surprising that a leading group would arise. Mathieu van de Poel, of course, started things up again, after which several more Dutchmen followed: Wout Poels, Arensman, Wilco Kelderman and Bouwman, among others.
Koen Bouwman stood his ground in the mountains today.
Ⓒ Twitter Jumbo-Visma
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Bouwman first on top of the Mortirolo
sport">Arriving at the Mortirolo, Bouwman appeared to have a good day, as did Arensman and Poels. With them were also Alejandro Valverde, Kämna, Jan Hirt and Hugh Carthy in the remaining leading group. Chris Hamilton and Ciccone dangled behind this.
sport">Bouwman was the first to surface in his mountain jersey on the legendary Mortirolo and thus reinforced his blue jersey. Meanwhile, Vincenzo Nibali had devised a plan for the descent of the Mortirolo. He let his team Astana lead the way and then be the first to go down the descent. The goodbye at the end of this season Shark of Messina can do that like no other.
sport">Watch here how Bouwman emerges first:
sport">Bron: discovery +
Pressurize
sport">The number 7 in the general classification tried to put pressure on the favorites. Did Carapaz, for example, already dare to go along, with still 70 km of course? The answer was yes, because Carapaz and co already managed to catch up with Nibali on the descent.
sport">However, the favorites were so far behind the front runners that the leading group of 7 men (with Arensman, Poels and Bouwman) seemed to make up their minds about who would take the day’s victory. Bouwman, however, let go after securing his mountain points and Kämna took off in the descent of the Teglio. Behind this were Valverde, Hirt, Arensman, Carthy and Poels. However, the latter had to wait for his leader Mikel Landa for the penultimate climb.
what a fight
sport">Kämna quickly drove away for 50 seconds, but 13.5 kilometers before the finish, Arensman went hunting for the German. Slowly he came closer.
sport">In the favorites Landa ran off and he got Carapaz and Hindley with him. Currently the three best classification riders in the race. Meanwhile, Hirt joined Arensman, who had already reached Kämna. The Dutchman then flew off on his own and got Hirt with him, who immediately flew away himself. What a fight!
Surviving Attacks
sport">Arensman kept dangling around 15 seconds behind it, but couldn’t get back to Hirt. With the climb of the Aprica – 2 kilometers before the finish – and an 8 seconds lead, Hirt didn’t seem to give up anymore. And so it turned out. Arensman stranded within seconds.
sport">View the finish here:
sport">It is the first stage win in the WorldTour for the 31-year-old Czech. This year he previously won a stage and the classification of the Tour of Oman. In the Tour of Italy, the Belgian team previously took a stage victory with the Eritrean Biniam Girmay.
sport">The pink jersey will therefore remain in Carapaz’s possession. The Ecuadorian of Ineos Grenadiers survived attacks by, among others, the Spaniard Landa and the Australian Hindley.
Bouwman is doing good business for the mountain jersey with points on Mortirolo
sport">Bouwman successfully defended his blue mountain jersey in the sixteenth stage of the Giro d’Italia. The 28-year-old cyclist from Jumbo-Visma was the first to climb on top of the famous Mortirolo and finished in the mountains classification. Bouwman has 167 points, 68 more than the Italian Giulio Ciccone and 75 more than the Spaniard Diego Rosa. “I have good legs, but going for a stage win is not realistic at the moment and this blue jersey is, so we are focusing on that,” he said.
sport">“It was difficult to get into the break”, Bouwman looked back on the ride. “On the first mountain sprint I was surprised by Ciccone, who is also fast. I was mad at myself. In the valley we were able to drive away with a group and so I could take the full points on the Mortirolo. You won’t win the game there, but it’s nice to hear everyone there shouting your name.”
sport">Bouwman let the leading group run before the last climb. “Although I wasn’t at the limit, I didn’t have enough left to fight for the stage win. So I decided to take it easy until the finish.”
sport">The cyclist came in 25th at almost 17 minutes from stage winner Hirt. In Wednesday’s seventeenth stage from Ponte di Legno to Lavarone, there are again many points to conquer with the Valico del Vetriolo and the Monte Rovere, two first category climbs.
Evenepoel wins first stage in Tour of Norway
sport">Remco Evenepoel has won the first stage of the Tour of Norway. The 22-year-old Belgian of Quick Step – Alpha Vinyl was the fastest of a large group in the ascending finish after 173.6 kilometers between Mons and Voss. He beat the Norwegian Tobias Halland Johannessen and the Spaniard Eduard Prades. Mike Teunissen finished eighth.
sport">Evenepoel, whose last race was the Liège-Bastogne-Liège classic that he won after a solo, is also the first leader in the Tour of Norway. The stage race in Norway has six stages and lasts until Sunday.
leader’s jersey
sport">Richard Carapaz kept a narrow lead in the standings over his first pursuer Jai Hindley after the tough stage. The Australian finished third and took four bonus seconds with which he approached the rose jersey wearer from Ecuador to within 3 seconds.
sport">Carapaz was nevertheless satisfied. “I thought I was going to win the sprint for third place. That turned out not to be the case, but it’s still a good day for me,” said the Ineos Grenadiers leader. “I lost some seconds on Hindley, but I gained more on João Almeida, so the balance is positive.”
sport">Hindley was also happy with the time gain, although it was not possible to really break away from Carapaz and the other classification riders during the stage. “I felt pretty good on the final climb,” said the Bora-hangrohe cyclist. “Mikel Landa attacked and I was able to follow. Then I also tried a few times, but I didn’t manage to release Landa and Carapaz. I think we can say that this was a good day for me. I get bonus seconds and some time on the other GC riders. I still feel really good, looking forward to the next day.”
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