Fraile breaks duck to win grand tour after thriller

BAGNO DI ROMAGNA: Spaniard Omar Fraile broke his grand tour duck with victory in a thrilling 11th stage of the Giro d’Italia on Wednesday that ended the hopes of Britain’s Geraint Thomas.

Tom Dumoulin retained the pink jersey after a 161 km ride from Florence to Bagno di Romagna that saw the Dutchman and his Sunweb team pushed all the way before he maintained his overall race lead of 2min 23sec on 2014 champion Nairo Quintana (Movistar).

Italy’s two-time and defending champion Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain), who saw teammate Franco Pellizotti crash but get back on his bike, remains fifth overall at 2:47 as the contenders for the “maglia rosa” looked forward to two days of comparative rest on stages 12 and 13, which are more suited to sprinters.

The overall victory hopes of Sky rider Thomas, whose bid more or less ended when he lost over five minutes in a crash on Saturday, now look conclusively over after the Welshman finished 2min 25sec in arrears to drop to over six minutes behind Dumoulin.

Despite his significant advantage following victory in the 10th stage time trial on Tuesday, Dumoulin had to rely on his team to chase down and control a number of attacks.

He was quick to pay tribute, giving Sunweb and in particular rider Laurens ten Dam the thumbs-up as he crossed the finish line to thank them for keeping the threats to a minimum.

“We expected a really hard fight today, and it was,” said Dumoulin, who pushed Quintana into second when he finished 49 seconds ahead of second-placed Thomas on Tuesday.

“We expected guys to attack on the first climb, and they did. All I can do is thank my team. They always kept it within distance. It was a really good day, I’m really happy.”

He added: “Laurens is our old warrior, he’s getting better with age. Like a good wine.” AFP