Numerous sprint teams had hoped to win the 15th stage of the Giro d’Italia. In the end, the Norwegian Fredrik Dversnes was rewarded for a courageous breakaway attempt after 157 kilometers and was crowned winner in Milan. The German cycling star Max Walscheid then raged that his team had been deprived of the chance of victory.
With temperatures of more than 30 degrees, the breakaway group was found shortly after the start in Voghera. On the way through Lombardy, the sprint teams let them have their way, but kept the distance stable at just over two minutes. With the last real corner two kilometers from the finish, everything was in place for the Sprint Royal. But the peloton miscalculated and could no longer catch the breakaways.
Max Walscheid from Lidl-Trek, who was working in the peloton for his teammate and superstar Jonathan Milan, sought to share the blame for this, but not with himself and his helpers shortly after crossing the finish line. “Today, unfortunately, motorcycles influenced the outcome of the race and that is extremely disappointing for us,” the German time trial specialist raged to “Eurosport” immediately after Fredrik Dversnes’ victory.
Cycling: Walscheid “extremely angry”
The Norwegians and his three fellow escapees had “undoubtedly done a good job and I don’t want to take away from their sporting performance,” he added, but added: “I know that I am one of the best time trialists here and I had very good legs. We rode extremely hard in the final and we hardly got any closer and that is practically impossible in an unadulterated way.”
The unstoppable Walscheid said on the TV station’s microphone that he was “extremely angry”: “Today it feels as if the opportunity to win was taken away. We’re not the only ones there, but we invested a lot to fight for victory. So I’m very disappointed that it didn’t work out.”
Former professional Rolf Aldag saw it differently that the motorcycles were actually to blame for Dversnes being surprisingly crowned winner of the day. “I have to say, that wasn’t the first thing I would have guessed when commenting. It didn’t look like they were riding directly behind the bike. From behind it’s often a distorted perspective, so of course you always think they’re riding directly behind the motorcycle,” the TV expert said.
