American professional cyclist Sepp Kuss won the queen stage of the 109th Giro d’Italia, completing a large personal collection. After his stage victories at the Vuelta and the Tour de France, the 31-year-old now celebrated a day’s success at the Giro for the first time. Jonas Vingegaard continues to drive towards overall victory.
Kuss, who helped top favorite Jonas Vingegaard on the Visma-Lease a Bike team, won the 19th section on Friday. After a difficult 151 km with a start in Feltre and a mountain finish in Alleghe, he finished 13 seconds ahead of the Canadian Derek Gee-West (Lidl-Trek).
“I’ve always dreamed of this”said Kiss. “But every year it didn’t work out, I thought it was getting harder and harder. It’s unbelievable.”
A total of six rated climbs and almost 5,000 meters of altitude had to be overcome on the queen stage of this year’s Giro. The highest point was on the Dolomites Passo di Giau at 2,226 meters.
Vingegaard has Giro overall victory in front of your eyes
Vingegaard continues to drive towards overall victory on his debut at the Tour of Italy. The Dane came fifth in northeastern Italy (+0:39), he goes into the last mountain stage on Saturday with a lead of 4:03 minutes over the Austrian Felix Gall (Decathlon-CMA CGM).
Narvaez has to give up
The three-time stage winner Jhonatan Narváez had to retire on Friday. As his racing team UAE Emirates-XRG announced, the Ecuadorian had a slight fall on the way back to the team bus on Thursday. The team continued that the injuries, which were not mentioned in detail, had severely affected him on Friday on the stage with an altitude of almost 5,000 meters. With the task, the 29-year-old Narváez’s dream of winning the points jersey was shattered; the Frenchman Paul Magnier now has it practically guaranteed.
Crisp final days at the Giro d’Italia
On Saturday there is another difficult mountain stage on the program, over 200 kilometers from Gemona del Friuli up to Piancavallo. The climb to the winter sports resort, a mountain in the first category, has to be overcome twice: once with a good 40 kilometers to go before the finish, then again when you reach the mountain. The 109th Giro ends on Sunday with a flat, sprinter-friendly section in Rome.
