Archie Ryan scorched to an epic win today at Coppi e Bartali when he someone held off the remains of the peloton on the uphill finish when most other riders would have been swamped.
The 22-year-old EF Education-EasyPost rider was caught right on the line, but had judged his effort on his 6km solo effort to perfection and simply had too much in his legs for those chasing to get back on terms.
Though he had just eight seconds of a lead with 1km to go, and that gap fell all the way to the line, he said in the closing stages he knew he had the victory in the bad, before crossing the line and punching the air showing his sheer delight.
He now moves up to 2nd overall, just nine seconds behind yesterday's stage winner Koen Bouwman (Visma-Lease a Bike), with Ryan also leading the young rider classification as a big chance beckons tomorrow to take the overall win.
Advertisement
“I thought the gap was big enough so I thought I could get the win but I didn’t know how fast the peloton was going,” a thrilled Ryan said at the finish.
“I knew I had it when I looked back at the final corner and there was still a decent gap. I thought, ‘If I don’t lock up, I’ve got this.’
Related News
“Cepeda ripped it that last time on the climb and I went after and Lukas finished off strong so happy days! It’s a top performance for us young guys in the race."
Sports director Tom Southam heaped praise on Ryan and his team mates for the manner of the win, with Jefferson Alexander Cepeda softening up the remains on the bunch on the steep incline with 6km to go before Ryan pulled the trigger.
“They’re doing well,” Southam said. “The sun’s out. The food’s good. They’ve got confidence because they’re performing well. They’re racing hard and they’re doing really well. It’s nice to see.
“We knew the place for him to go was the hardest part of the race. But what we needed to happen was for the race to be hard enough to make it really selective beforehand. And fortunately, it panned out that way because we couldn't really influence it with just four riders.
"It panned out to be a really hard day which meant that when Archie went, he was obviously going to be harder to catch because then it's a real question of legs instead of tactics.”
Tomorrow's final stage – 157.9km starting and finishing in Forlì – is set to unfold on a tough circuit that is up and down for the full stage. It should break up the field, perhaps offering Ryan the chance to take another stage win and even the overall victory.
