Ewan scores double, Valter holds pink jersey
TERMOLI, Italy: Australia’s Caleb Ewan of the Lotto team sped to a second win at the Giro on Friday, two days after his first success.
The 26-year-old, nicknamed the ‘Pocket Rocket’ has set his sights this season on winning stages on the three big Tours -- the Giro, Tour de France and Vuelta.
Adding stage seven to stage five Ewan brings his tally to five stage wins in total in the three-week Giro d’Italia. Ewan was quickest to react after Colombian Fernando Gaviria anticipated the sprint in the final kilometre with the Australian overtaking the UAE-Emirates rider in the final 200 metres.
He finished ahead of Italian Davide Cimolai and Belgian Tim Merlier in a stage contested in difficult conditions with strong head winds over 181km run mostly along the Adriatic coast from Notaresco.
“I knew it would be a good finish for me. Then it was a question of being smart and a lot of team work too. All my guys went from a long way out. We had to stay in the front for the last 10km,” said Ewan.
“The start of the climbing was the most important part. It was a super hard finish and I had to go deep to win today. My legs were absolutely burning.”
Hungary’s Attila Valter of Groupama-FDJ held the leader’s pink jersey with an 11sec advantage on Belgian tyro Remco Evenepoel while Colombian Egan Bernal, the 2019 Tour de France winner, is third a further five seconds behind.
“I wasn’t nervous. I felt lucky that I could enjoy my day in the Maglia Rosa. The team always kept me in the front. I felt like a different rider with the jersey.
“I felt very respected in the peloton and I want to thank all the riders for their congratulations. To pass through the beautiful cities of Italy with people cheering for the Maglia Rosa, I had to pinch myself to realise that it was really me,” said Valter.