Tim Merlier has taken a brilliant stage win at the Giro d'Italia, on what is his and his Alpecin-Fenix team's Grand Tour debut.
Merlier (28) has been in great form this season with three wins before today. And the former Belgian national champion collected his fourth win of 2021 at the end of 179km of racing from Stupinigi to Novara today.
Merlier won the day ahead of Giacomo Nizzolo (Qhubeka ASSOS), Elia Viviani (Cofidis), Dylan Groenewegen (Jumbo Visma) and Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe), in that order.
Irish riders Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) and Nicolas Roche (Team DSM) both finished in the bunch today, in 64th and 95th places respectively, and were on the same time as the winner.
Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates) was very well placed in the sprint and just as he was about to pull the trigger, up the inside against the barriers, disaster struck.
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Gaviria's team mate, Juan Sebastián Molano, was just ahead of him and quickly looked around to his left to see where his sprinter was. As Molano did that, he moved slightly to his right and accidentally closed the door on Gaviria.
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The Colombian rider was inadvertently shouldered by his team mate into the barriers. Gaviria then made contact with the barriers and was taken out of the sprint as his momentum was gone. However, he just about managed to stay upright, so a bigger crisis was averted.
Race leader Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) showed off the maglia rosa today after his TT victory yesterday by winning the intermediate sprint today to take a three-second time bonus.
Ganna was then on the front of the bunch, with team leader Egan Bernal on his wheel, as the race entered the last kilometre; clearly intent on keeping himself and Bernal out of trouble.
Also at the intermediate sprint today, Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep) was 2nd over the line and so took a two-second time bonus.
That moves up him a few places overall, from 7th to 4th. That time bonus also brings Evenepoel level on time with his team mate, and team co-leader, João Almeida; both 20 seconds down on Ganna.
The race came down to a sprint today after the early breakaway was caught with 25km to go on what was a relatively uneventful and slow stage, apart from the big bunch sprint to the finish line.
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