The tour of Italy is simply his race: Nico Denz celebrated its third Giro day success on the 18th stage. The Bora driver moved out of an outlier group as a soloist on Thursday and was the first line to cross the line in Cesano Maderno after 144 kilometers. Mirco Maestri finished 1:01 minutes after Denz as a second place.
“This is probably my most emotional victory”said the triumphant afterwards. “I followed my instinct. In the final, the group didn’t really cooperate. I thought I just tried it and put everything on one card.” Successfully.
The main field around Isaac del Toro has Denz and Co.
The profile was predestined for testing tests and accordingly it was hot shortly after the start in Morbegno. A slightly larger guide group of more than ten drivers developed, which even grew over 30. Also present were Mads Pedersen, who had long driven in pink in the first half of the Giro, Christian Scaroni, who won the royal stage of this year’s tour on Wednesday, and Wout van Aert. With Felix Engelhardt and Denz, Germans also made it into the top group.
The Peloton led by Isaac del Toro, which impressively consolidated and expanded its top position in the overall ranking the day before, quickly made it clear that it would allow the leaders to be granted. The lead grew over ten minutes, a mass sprint from the large group indicated – especially since it was only flat towards Cesano Maderno over the past 40 kilometers.
Denz only makes it into the top group in follow -up – and then leaves it
The outliers did not arrive there, they divided again, so ten professionals drove for victory – neither Pedersen nor Scaroni or Van Aert included this, but that. The driver of the Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe team had initially missed the right moment, but subsequently managed to connect to the outline outliers.
But that was not enough, 18 kilometers before the finish, the 31-year-old succeeded in the decisive attack and he alone set himself away from his competitors. Two years earlier, Denz had celebrated his greatest success on the Tour of Italy when he won the twelfth and then the 14th stage in the sprint of an outlier group. Now he was driving towards his third win, ten kilometers before the end the lead was almost 30 seconds.
The pursuers did not manage to reduce the gap, even before the last 5000 meters there were 32 seconds that Denz drove in front of them. He even passed the flame Rouge 47 seconds ahead – the last kilometer became a triumphal trip for him. Unlike his previous two Giro successes, when he had to fight to the destination, he could enjoy it, threw handicuters into the audience prematurely. After 3: 12.07 hours he tore his arms up and proved that he is a real Italian specialist.
According to Roglic, Ayuso also gives up
The day had started that according to Primoz Roglic, the second big favorite of this tour of Italy exit. Juan Ayuso was caught by an insect the day before, the Spaniard tried it despite the swelling, but after a little more than 30 kilometers he decided to the task and climbed into the vehicle of his UAE team.
In the past few days, Ayuso had already revealed weaknesses and had to bury his hope for the overall victory, now the disappointing weeks in Italy ended well before the finish in Rome. However, this was also bad news for Del Toro, who had already lost an important helper with Jay Vine the day before, and now has less support before the decisive two days.
Two hard mountains will take care of the decision
Before the last stage in Rome on Sunday, the drivers will get the stick again. The 18th daily section starts quite carefully with a mountain of the third category, but there are three climbs of the first category and one of the second category shortly before the finish, which is waiting after a final five-kilometer descent in Champouluc.
On Saturday there are again over 4,500 meters of altitude, for the last 44 kilometers, the Colle Delle Finestre with an average climb of 9.2 percent over 18.5 kilometers is waiting for the last 44 kilometers. It will probably be clear then who will win the 108th Giro in the end.