Eddie Dunbar (Team Jayco AlUla) is now up to 7th overall on Giro d'Italia after Ineos Grenadiers suffered a night stage 11 on the 219km race to Tortona. Not only did Pavel Sivakov crash, and plummet out of the top 10, but one of the favourites, Tao Geoghegan Hart had to leave the race due to crash injuries.
Also hitting the deck to was Geraint Thomas, the Ineos Grenadiers man who is leading the race, as well as one of the biggest favourites, Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma). The three Ineos Grenadiers riders and Roglič all came down in the same incident, after on the descent of the Colla di Boasi with 69km.
In the end, stage honours came down to a bunch sprint, with Dunbar and fellow Irish rider, and stage 8 winner, Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) both finishing in the bunch. Dunbar placed 85th and Healy was 114th.
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Neither Thomas nor Roglič were seriously injured today and were able to quickly remount. However, while Sivakov was able to continue, he lost almost 14 minutes today, finishing 4th last and is now down to 15 places overall, from 7th this morning to 23rd.
Geoghegan Hart began the stage 3rd overall, just five seconds down on leader and team mate, Thomas, who he has looked stronger than on this race. His withdrawal from the race and Sivakov's troubles meant Dunbar moved up two places to 7th overall, still 2:32 off the race lead.
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While he would not want to climb the standings through unfortunate crashes for his rivals, Dunbar has himself been unlucky during his career but finally everything appears to be coming together for him on this race. However, as Thomas has cautioned, the riders are yet to race hard up a mountain yet and the general classification will change in coming days, particularly on Friday.
For Dunbar, those harder stages should suit him as he is a specialist climber. He told stickybottle, in an interview published this morning, he was confident he was "going in the right direction". He added he was surprised he was feeling so good on the race after his early season was wiped out in a crash where he broke his hand.
Today's stage came down to a very tight bunch sprint, won in a photo finish by Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates) from Jonathan Milan (Bahrain Victorious) after both overtook Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) after the Dan went a little too early.
Ackermann just about held off Milan; the team pursuiter turned sprinter coming through like a steam train as the line approached and only just failing to pip Ackermann. Both riders were convinced they had won the stage, and celebrated with their teams, until the finish line cameras confirmed German Ackermann as winner.
Tomorrow's stage 12 is 179km from Bra to Rivoli. It is one that may suit a breakaway and with a cat 2 climb crested some 28km from the finish - most of that a descent - the general classification men may also flex their muscle.
