British professional cyclist Geraint Thomas reclaimed the pink jersey at the 106th Giro d’Italia. The former Tour de France winner from the Ineos Grenadiers team took second place at the top of Monte Bondone and after the rest day took over the lead from Bruno Armirail (France/Groupama-FDJ), who lost time. Thomas had already worn the leader’s jersey for several days in the second week.
The Portuguese Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) secured the stage win in the sprint in front of Thomas, 25 seconds behind the three-time Vuelta winner Primoz Roglic (Slovenia/Jumbo-Visma) followed in third place. The German hopeful Lennard Kämna (Bora-hansgrohe) was not able to keep up with the leaders on the last difficult climb and finished eleventh, 1:20 minutes behind. In the overall standings, the 26-year-old climbed to sixth place.
“I’m overjoyed, a dream is coming true,” said winner Almeida, who moved up to second place in the overall standings: “I can’t find the words to describe it.”
After a day’s break, numerous mountains and a total of 5200 meters in altitude were waiting for the drivers. A leading group formed around Kämna’s teammate Patrick Konrad, which the favorites then placed with almost ten kilometers to go. The battle for the overall lead then flared up, and only Thomas was able to follow Almeida’s attack.
The 17th stage of the day on Wednesday is a classic transition stage, the peloton goes from Pergine Valsugana to Caorle over 197 almost exclusively flat kilometers. There the German UAE driver Pascal Ackermann (Kandel) wants to tackle his second stage win in this year’s tour.
The decision in the fight for the pink jersey will be made in the two difficult mountain climbs that follow and the demanding individual time trial with 1050 meters in altitude over 18.6 km.