HOLDING A BREAK
Dombrowski strong in the rain
THE breakaway survived again as Stage 4 of the Giro d’Italia delivered on its promise as the first test for the overall contenders.
A group of 25 riders got clear in the atrocious conditions and built a maximum lead of eight minutes before the peloton started to react.
Although there were riders in the lead group who could take the leader’s jersey there was no one in the break that was a serious threat for overall victory.
The stage was pancake flat for the first 80km but into a strong headwind and the large break worked well. But once the race hit the mountainous second half the break started to splinter.
Dane Chris Juul Jensen (Team BikeExchange) and the fittingly named Estonian Rein Taaramae (Intermarche Wanty) rode clear approaching the final steep slopes of the Colle d’
Passerino but Italian veteran Alessandro De Marchi (Israel Start-Up Nation) could see his chance to take his first ever leader’s maglia rosa pink jersey and he raced clear from the remains of the break taking with him American Joe Dombrowski (UAE Team Emirates).
The American proved the strongest, taking a fine solo win by 13 seconds from De Marchi, who had the consolation of snatching the race lead.
Compatriot Filippo Fiorelli (Bardiani CSF Faizane) was third at 27 seconds.
But the race for the overall title exploded into action on the final slopes.
The first real attack came from Italian Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) and an impressive Spaniard Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious), who burst out of the chasing group putting many GC contenders under pressure.
That caused a strong reaction from 2019 Tour de France champion Egan
Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers), who was joined by Russian Aleksandr Vlasov (AstanaPremier Tech) and
Englishman Hugh Carthy (EF Education-Nippo), who all looked very strong.
They may have only gained 11 seconds on Simon Yates (BikeExchange), Romain Bardet (Team DSM), and Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep) but it was decisive in that they couldn’t respond.
Italian superstar Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segfredo),
Russian Pavel Sivakov and Aussie Jai Hindley lost 34 seconds and while still in the mix, will need a reversal of form to challenge for this Giro.
Kiwi George Bennett (Jumbo-Visma) and Portuguese rising star Joao Almeida (Deceuninck Quick Step) lost 4:21 to the Bernal group and all realistic hopes of victory.
As predicted, the
Giro’s first trip into the mountains did not reveal who would win this year’s race but it did tell us who won’t and gave us a glimpse of who the real form riders are.
To me the standouts were Bernal and Landa.
The Colombian showed no sign of the back problems that ruined his 2020 season and the veteran Spaniard looks to be in career-best form. I do question why Ineos spent so much energy so early in what looks the toughest Giro in recent years. Using Fillipo Ganna to control the race seemed like a wasted effort.
Tonight’s 160km Stage 6 from Grotte di Frasassi will be another chance for the GC contenders to battle it out over some serious climbs.