Nicolas Roche knew the fast run-in to the finish line on today's stage of the Giro d'Italia was potentially dangerous so he stayed as far up the bunch as possible. The strategy worked well as he lost no time to those around him on general classification.
Nicolas Roche finished on the right side of a split in the bunch on the run-in to the finish in Foligno today, thus moving up three places to 16th on general classification at the Giro d’Italia.
The Irishman is 1:15 down on race leader Tom Dumoulin (Giant Alpecin) who retained the pink jersey for another day.
Roche crossed the line in the same time as stage winner Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal), thanks to staying as close to the front as he possibly could in what was a fast and dangerous final.
Advertisement
The rather flat seventh stage of the race was always destined to be decided by a bunch sprint and it was German powerhouse Greipel (Lotto Soudal) who took the honours for the second time in three days.
Following teammate Tim Wellens’ win yesterday, the Belgian-registered team became the first to win three stages in-a-row since Movistar completed the feat in 2013.
Dutchman Dumoulin still leads Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) overall by 26 seconds, with big favourites Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) at 41 seconds, Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) at 47 seconds and Roche’s teammate Mikel Landa (Team Sky) at 1:08.
Related News
Philip Deignan crossed the line in a group just under three minutes back and he dropped to 86th at 22:34.
This weekend the riders faces a very challenging couple of stages with a dirt road climb before the finish in Arezzo tomorrow followed by the rolling 40-kilometre time trial on Sunday.
The test against the clock has always been billed as one of the key stages of the race which should paint a clearer picture of who is going to contend for the race outright in two weeks.
The stage takes the riders 186 kilometres from Foligno to Arezzo and though the first 150 kilometres are rather straight-forward, the aforementioned category two ramp that climbs to 827 metres with less than 20 kilometres to go will cause chaos.
Six of the kilometres on the climb are on gravel road and that’s a perfect opportunity for a late attack, so those with eyes on taking the pink jersey before Sunday's crucial time-trial stage could well strike out for stage glory here.
Topics
