Another day possibly for the sprinters at the Giro d’Italia saw a hard and fast race, as they took on a 178 kilometre long route from Genoa to Lucca. With plenty of hills in the opening 90 kilometres, a hard pace could have been set and that’s exactly what happened on the ascent of Passo del Bracco. Catching the breakaway due to the pace, some groups had to let go of the bunch. Fabio Jakobsen was supported by Julius van den Berg and Gijs Leemreize, and after a big fight they returned to the peloton in the following valley. After a lull in pace a new four-man group went away and built up an advantage of around one minute and 30 seconds where it held steady. Coming into the final climb they held onto a one minute advantage over the bunch, where some good positioning ensured Jakobsen got over the climb in the peloton. However, a tailwind combined with a committed effort from the four out front and a miscalculated effort by the peloton saw the quartet battle it out for the stage win in Lucca, surprising the sprint teams.
Speaking after the stage road captain Chris Hamilton expressed: “It was once again not a very straightforward sprint stage, which we thought it could have been at the start of the day. It was quite hard for the first half of the stage and Fabio did a good job to battle through with the guys, and to survive the last climb. In the end the break was strong and stayed away to fight for the win, and that was that really.”
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach Matt Winston added: “It was a hard first 90 kilometres where the guys showed some good fighting spirit to come back to the peloton. After that we were in control and Fabio rode a really good last climb and was there for the sprint. I think we were a bit too far back coming into the final though; we were just a little bit gassed from our earlier efforts. The break also rode well together and made it to the line anyway, so chapeau to them.”