Cycling, Giro Next Gen: the king is Staune-Mittet

The 21-year-old from Jumbo-Visma wins the Under 23 stage race organized by RCS Sport. Sesto Martinelli, best Italian. The last stage with arrival in Trieste was conquered by the Danish Anders Foldager

David Romans

Johannes Staune-Mittet is the first Norwegian to win the Giro Next Gen. At the age of 21, the Jumbo-Visma athlete mortgaged the final success of the Under 23 stage race with success in the 4th stage with arrival on the Stelvio, at 2757 meters of the mountain made into a myth by Fausto Coppi. Johannes was the big favorite on the eve and he didn’t disappoint expectations. Born in Lillehammer, Staune-Mittet began cross-country skiing, a sport he practiced until 2 years ago, when he became Norwegian junior champion in the 10km classic technique. The Norwegian has already raced with the pros this year: Coppi&Bartali, Volta Limburg Classic and Tour of Norway.

The last stop

In the eighth stage, Tavagnacco-Trieste of 135 km, the success went to the Dane Anders Foldager (Biesse-Carrera) ahead of Luca Cretti (Team Colpack Ballan), third the other Dane Henrik Pedersen (Team ColoQuick). In the general Staune-Mittet he won with 47″ over the Irishman Darren Rafferty of the Hagens Berman Axeon and 2’02” over the German Hannes Wilksch of Team Tudor. Alessio Martinelli (Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè) sixth is the best Italian in the general classification.



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