Traversing 190 kilometres from Acqui Terme to Andora, another probable sprint finish lay ahead of the Giro d’Italia on Tuesday but with the Capo Mele coming in the final five kilometres, it was set to tempt the attackers and those looking to disrupt the sprint trains. Unfortunately, the day started with some bad news for the team as Bram Welten had to abandon the race due to sickness.
The seven remaining Team dsm-firmenich PostNL riders continued on and remained in the bunch as the three rider break formed out front. The attackers were given a five minute and 30 second advantage heading onto the main climb of the day and some teams looked to put the pressure on. Fabio Jakobsen had to let go of the bunch but had Gijs Leemreize and Julius van den Berg to support him, and after some good teamwork they were able to return to the bunch. Nervousness returned to the peloton and some crashes made things more hectic, but the team thankfully managed to come through unscathed. In the end, it was all set up for a final showdown on the Capo Mele with the original breakaway caught.
In the big fight for position the team tried to move forward well, looking to bring their sprint group up, and at that moment Ganna attacked right at the bottom. A fierce chance then followed over the top and down the other side, with the team then bringing Jakobsen forward into position inside the last kilometre as he returned to the front. Unfortunately, Jakobsen had to brake as he got squeezed at around 500 metres to go and from that point was unable to compete for a result in the sprint anymore.
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach Matt Winston expressed: “It was a shame that Bram had to go home due to sickness before the start. There’s nothing we can do about it but he’ll be a big loss to the team here and that put a bit of a downer on the day at the start. It was a hectic stage in general. Fabio dropped on the main climb of the day but with some good teamwork he came back to the peloton okay and then he was totally fine. I think the guys rode well, it was hectic and there was a lot of crashes in the descent. We did a good job but I think that final was just a little too hard for Fabio, he slid a bit too far back over the top. He came back into position with the guys but then got squeezed at around 500 metres to go and at that point the sprint was over.”
