Category: Cycling

• Team Visma-Lease a Bike rider pips Jonathan Milan on line
• Jhonatan Narváez attacked early but was caught in sprint

Olav Kooij snatched victory in stunning style to win stage nine of the Giro d’Italia. After the final climb of the day on the 214km route from Avezzano to Napoli, Julian Alaphilippe led the leading group but was soon overtaken by Jhonatan Narváez.

The Ineos Grenadiers rider looked on track for victory with 5km to go, but the peloton quickly caught up with him to produce a thrilling finish in the final kilometre where a brilliant sprint from Kooij saw him triumph.

Continue reading...

• Race leader marks all attacks before surging clear on final climb
• Daniel Martínez remains second, with Geraint Thomas in third

Tadej Pogacar won stage eight of the Giro d’Italia with a superb performance on the 152km ride from Spoleto to Prati di Tivo, extending his lead with his 10th victory of the season to retain the maglia rosa.

The Slovenian UAE Team Emirates rider dominated once again on a tough mountain route which had a total altitude gain of 3,850 metres, coming out on top on the 15km climb to Prati di Tivo.

Continue reading...

• Slovenian wins stage seven, with Filippo Ganna in second place
• Pogacar now already leads race by two minutes and 36 seconds

Tadej Pogacar of UAE Team Emirates produced an individual time-trial masterclass to win stage seven of the Giro d’Italia, crushing the opposition on the 40.6km route from Foligno to Perugia after Filippo Ganna had set the pace.

Ineos Grenadiers’ Italian rider Ganna had set a time of 52 minutes and one second, and looked set to win the stage when Pogacar found himself behind after the second intermediate checkpoint. However, the Slovenian made up time on the brutal climb to the finish line and ultimately crossed the line at 51:44, punching the air as he went 17 seconds faster than Ganna to extend his overall lead and retain the maglia rosa.

Continue reading...

• Stage six landed by Movistar rider after three-man break
• Tadej Pogacar retains overall lead after finishing in peloton

Spain’s Pelayo Sánchez claimed victory on stage six of the Giro d’Italia as he out-sprinted two other breakaway riders on the uphill finish at Rapolano Terme.

Sánchez (Movistar), France’s Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) and Australian Luke Plapp (Jayco AlUla) kept clear of the chasing peloton at the climax of the 180km ride. But the 24-year-old Sánchez had the legs to hold Alaphilippe and fellow Giro debutant Plapp at bay.

More details to follow …

Continue reading...

• Sprinters’ teams fail to reel in four escapers before Lucca finish
• Tadej Pogacar leads Geraint Thomas by 46sec after stage five

The French rider Benjamin Thomas outsprinted his breakaway colleagues in Tuscany to win the fifth stage of the Giro d’Italia, giving the Cofidis team their first victory this year.

The four-man break escaped the peloton after the final intermediate sprint of the day, with 80km left to ride, and held off the chasing pack despite the best efforts of the main sprint contenders’ teams. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team-Emirates) still holds the overall lead, 46sec ahead of Geraint Thomas.

Continue reading...

• Home rider denies Kaden Groves on the line in Andora
• Tadej Pogacar remains 46 seconds clear in overall lead

Italy’s Jonathan Milan went one better than the previous day to win the sprint and take the fourth stage of the Giro d’Italia after an early breakaway was reeled in, with Tadej Pogacar maintaining his overall lead.

Milan of Lidl-Trek went to the front close to the line and, despite the best efforts of Australia’s Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck), the Italian held on to make up for missing out on winning stage three when he was outsprinted by Tim Merlier. Germany’s Phil Bauhaus of Bahrain Victorious came in third on the 190km ride from Acqui Terme to Andora, which had featured a breakaway almost from the start, before the peloton brought them back to set up the expected sprint finish.

Continue reading...

• Belgian sprinter wins after GC contenders’ late break is caught
• Pogacar stays in pink jersey, 46 seconds ahead of Thomas

Belgian sprinter Tim Merlier sprinted to victory in the third stage of the Giro d’Italia on Monday, after race leader Tadej Pogacar had threatened to steal a march on the sprinters with a late burst.

The mostly flat 166km ride from Novara to Fossano was expected to culminate in a sprint finish, but Pogacar (UAE-Team Emirates) had other plans. The man in the pink jersey broke clear with Mikkel Honoré (EF Education-EasyPost) and title rival Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) in the closing stages, but all three were caught by the pack before the line.

Continue reading...

• Slovenian favourite puts 27 seconds into nearest rivals
• Ineos leader Geraint Thomas finishes third at summit finish

The race favourite Tadej Pogacar made light of a mechanical problem to blast into the lead of the Giro d’Italia with victory on the summit finish to the 161km second stage on Sunday.

The Slovenian suffered a puncture at the foot of the steep 11km climb to Santuario di Oropa but he was helped back into the group by his teammates before launching a devastating solo attack.

Continue reading...

• Ecuadorian rider wins stage with time of 3hr 14min 13 sec
• Maximilian Schachmann in second with Tadej Pogacar third

Ecuador’s Jhonatan Narváez won a sprint finish to claim victory for Ineos Grenadiers on stage one of the Giro d’Italia.

Starting at Venaria Reale, Saturday’s 136km stage featured a category two climb on the Colle della Maddalena before ending in Turin.

Continue reading...

The outstanding Slovenian cyclist is putting the hype in perspective as he prepares for his debut in historic Grand Tour

Tadej Pogacar may be the outstanding bet to win his debut Giro d’Italia, but the Slovenian is also acutely aware of how three weeks of Grand Tour racing can throw up sudden, unexpected moments of weakness.

He has exploited that in the past, usurping his stunned compatriot, Primoz Roglic, to win the 2020 Tour de France. But he has also been victim, as in last year’s Tour, when Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard applied the coup de grâce on the Col de la Loze.

Continue reading...

The British rider talks about doubling up in the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France, and why cycling can do more in terms of safety

Geraint Thomas heads to the start of 2024’s first Grand Tour, the Giro d’Italia, determined to avenge the bitter tears of a year ago when he lost the race to Primoz Roglic in a dramatic final time trial. “It was a tough and challenging moment, but for me it wasn’t like I had a bad day or did anything drastically wrong,” he says.

“Roglic had a flyer and he deserved to win it. It’s not like I lost it – he won it. It was hard. You lead the Giro for half the race and then you lose by 15 seconds on the final day: it’s a tough one. But then as [the psychologist] Steve Peters would always say: ‘Life’s not fair. Get on with it.’”

Continue reading...