Lennard Kämna (Bora-hansgrohe) and Juan Pedro López (Trek-Segafredo) today emerged best on the first climbing test of Giro d'Italia, on a day when some of the biggest teams saw their plans go up in smoke on Mount Etna.
All of Jumbo Visma's fancied climbers, including 2017 Giro winner Tom Dumoulin, slipped back on the summit finish and the team's hope of a GC challenge are over after just one proper climb.
Kämna and López were among six survivors from the large day-long breakaway that managed to make it to the finish line atop the 22.8km climb before being caught by the select group.
Most of the favourites were in the select group, which finished 2:37 down on the two leaders. However, some of the big names faltered on the climb and their GC challenges, who remote they may have been, are now over.
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Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma) was a dejected figure as he spoken to the media after the finish. The Dutch rider - an outside hope for career revival as a Grand Tour contender - saw his challenge collapse today. He was dropped by the select group halfway up the volcano's unforgiving slopes and lost more than 6½ minutes to the select group.
Others to slip back, and the time they lost to the GC group today, included: Pavel Sivakov (Ineos Grenadiers), 55 seconds; Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), 1:31; Vincenzo Nibali (Astana Qazaqstan), 2:15. Maglia rosa Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) finished 22:54 down on the stage winner.
Miguel Ángel López (Astana Qazaqstan), once again, ended a stage of a Grand Tour in the back of a team car after a hip injury bothering him since the start of the race worsened and forced him to climb off today.
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Simon Yates (BikeExchange-Jayco) finished at the back of the select group, led him by Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers), and lost no time to his rivals. However, Yates crashed early in the stage just before a race moto was involved in another incident that brought down a group of riders.
Up front today some 14 riders went clear and six survived, with López attacking the group on the steepest part of the climb before Kämna eventually joined him and beat him in the two-up sprint for victory.
Rein Taaramäe (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux) finished 3rd at 34 seconds followed by Sylvain Moniquet (Lotto Soudal) and Mauri Vansevenant (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl), in 4th and 5th, at 2:12. The last of the breakaway survivors, Gijs Leemreize (Jumbo-Visma), claimed 6th at 2:31 and was just six seconds up on the chasing group.
Carapaz led home that select group with a sprint in a bid to take time on his rivals, though it came up short. One noted feature of the stage was the return of the Ineos Grenadiers train on the front of the bunch up the climb, though Richie Porte was the only team member able to stay in the group with Carapaz all the way to the line.
