Tour of Italy

Monday May 6, 2024 at 5:21 PM

The first sprinter’s stage in the Giro d’Italia, with arrival in Fossano, was won by Tim Merlier. The Belgian was the fastest in the sprint after a very exciting final, which was spiced up by a duo attack by rosette wearer Tadej Pogacar and Geraint Thomas. Jonathan Milan and Biniam Girmay finished second and third.

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Only on the third day of the 2024 Giro d’Italia did the sprinters seem to get their first chance. Today, in a stage of 166 kilometers, the peloton rode south from Novara towards Fossana. After two rides with many elevation meters, the fast men could indulge themselves. With over 800 meters of elevation gain today was not too bad, although the final phase was made a bit more difficult by two short hills at Cherasco (1.2 km at 6.1%) and in Fossano (1.8 km at 4.2%) yourself. Good positioning therefore seemed to be a must for the contenders for the day’s victory.

No enthusiasm for the early flight
But before we started sprinting in Fossano, the sprinter teams first had to chase the early flight for a while. However? The road was open to the attackers, but they were not there initially. Everyone kept quiet in the first kilometers of the race. The riders mainly saw an opportunity to catch up after two intense opening days. It turned out to be the start of a real walking stage. Intermaché Wanty and Alpecin-Deceuninck alternated at the top of the peloton, but this happened at a particularly slow pace.

Pogacar shines in his pink jersey – photo: Cor Vos

In the run-up to the climb to Lu (fourth category), some riders had enough and we got some racing entertainment. In the run-up to the climb, some drivers tried to get away, including Lilian Calmejane (Intermaché Wanty), but the four were soon caught again by Daan Hoole, who works for Lidl-Trek. Calmejane did not just accept it and decided to attack again. The Frenchman is currently third in the mountains classification with twenty points and wanted to further expand his points total today.

Calmejane is doing well for the mountains classification
The peloton now gave up and Calmejane and his fellow escapee Davide Ballerini (Astana Qazaqstan) started with a lead on the only categorized fourth-category slope of the day. The two leaders did not seem eager to continue. Calmejane was mainly focused on the mountain points and was not hindered by Ballerini. The Frenchman was credited with three mountain points and then dropped back to the peloton.

And Ballerini? He rode ahead of the pack on his own for a little longer, but soon saw the futility of his mission. After a long and slow chase, the Italian was grabbed by the wrists again and it was a slow countdown of the kilometers towards the final. Fortunately, this was short-lived, because in the run-up to the first intermediate sprint of the day in Masio, the pace in the peloton was considerably increased again. The sprint that followed turned out to be a perfect fit for Jonathan Milan, who managed to take the full prize.

A battered Kooij was part of an interesting leading group – photo: Cor Vos

Intermediate sprint ensures a very large and strong leading group
The Italian from Lidl-Trek – last year’s winner of the points classification – gained twelve points. Edward Planckaert (Kaden Groves’ lead-out) and Olav Kooij finished second and third respectively. Peace seemed to return afterwards, but nothing turned out to be further from the truth. Filippo Fiorelli, still the leader in the points classification, wanted to pull away with a view to the next intermediate sprint. The Italian from VF Group-Bardiani turned out to be the initiator of a very interesting leading group, which continued after a while.

The peloton only realized the seriousness of the situation quite late, so the lead quickly increased to one and a half minutes. This was the signal for Team Polti-Kometa, Movistar and Bahrain Victorious, three teams that were not involved, to lead the chase. The front group of no fewer than 24 riders included many fast men, including Milan, Kooij, Christophe Laporte, Tim Merlier, Kaden Groves, Alberto Dainese, Caleb Ewan, David Dekker, Biniam Girmay and Danny van Poppel.

Composition of leading group

Kaden Groves, Edward Planckaert, Fabio Van den Bossche, Tobias Bayer (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Filippo Fiorelli, Martin Marcellusi, Manuele Tarozzi (VF Group-Bardiani), Matteo Trentin, Robin Froidevaux, Alberto Dainese (Tudor), Biniam Girmay, Madis Mihkels, Adrien Petit (Intermarché-Wanty), Tim Merlier, Luke Lamperti (Soudal Quick-Step), Christophe Laporte, Olav Kooij (Visma | Lease a Bike), Tobias Lund Andresen, Kevin Vermaerke (dsm-firmenich PostNL), Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek), Caleb Ewan (Jayco AlUla), David Dekker (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Danny van Poppel (BORA-hansgrohe), Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis).

Towards the second intermediate sprint in Montegrosso D’asti, the peloton came a little closer, also because the leading group still rode with some reserve. Not by Milan, who also managed to control the second intermediate sprint, this time ahead of Merlier and Groves. In the following kilometers the difference between the two groups became smaller and smaller and so a regrouping seemed imminent. Seemed like, because due to the incredibly high pace, the peloton was pulled into a long line, and several cracks appeared.

Several breaks in the peloton, Uijtdebroeks is surprised
Not much later, the peloton even broke into three pieces. In the first chasing group we saw rose jersey wearer Pogacar and most of the other classification men, but not everyone was alert. In the group with released riders, Cian Uijtdebroeks – the wearer of the white youth jersey – Juan Pedro López and Esteban Chaves suddenly found themselves in a very dire situation. Fortunately for these riders it all ended with a fizzle: with less than fifty kilometers to go, everything came together again in the pursuit of the leading group.

And the front group was also in its last throes, because the peloton joined up again 43 kilometers from Fossano. After these skirmishes, peace returned to the Giro caravan, although the peloton was able to prepare for the treacherous finale. At 22 kilometers from the finish there was a final intermediate sprint, but this time for the bonus seconds. Pogacar did not miss the opportunity to increase his lead in the rankings and took another two seconds behind Ben Swift. An equally attentive Thomas was good for one extra second.

The pink man shows up on the last slope
After the intermediate sprint it was a whirlwind towards the last ten kilometers, where the riders still had to overcome two short climbs. On the first slope we pushed very hard, but everything stayed together. On the second climb it went a bit faster, if possible, partly due to the pace of INEOS Grenadiers. None other than Thymen Arensman decided to pull out all the stops, with Thomas in his wheel, but most of the fast men managed to hold their own.

Pogacar could not contain himself in the final – photo: Cor Vos

However, Mikkel Honoré had other plans and so the EF Education-EasyPost rider decided to accelerate just before the top. The Dane was joined by… Pogacar and Thomas. The man in pink saw a unique opportunity to fool the sprinters and took over without hesitation. This turned out to be the death blow for Honoré, who was driven off the track. Thomas managed to hang and strangle the wheel of the unleashed Pogacar. The two top favorites for the overall victory started the last kilometer with an advantage.

But it turned out to be just not enough to stay out of the grasp of the sprinter teams, although Pogacar still came very close to his second victory. The Slovenian opened his sprint, but was overtaken by the fast men just 300 meters from the finish. In the sprint that followed, Milan seemed to be on their way to victory, but the strong Italian still had to acknowledge his superiority in Merlier. The Belgian won the first sprint clash of this Giro, and was once again the best in the first sprinter’s stage of a grand tour.

Milan therefore had to settle for second place, Biniam Girmay crossed the line in third. Olav Kooij became somewhat boxed in in the sprint and did not get further than sixth place. With Jenthe Biermans (4th), a second Belgian finished in the top 10. Fabio Jakobsen had to stop running in the final and was therefore unable to sprint.