It was somewhere in the roundabouts on the outskirts of Lucca that despair began to take hold.
As the Giro d’Italia headed into the birthplace of Mario Cipollini, the race’s all-time leader in stage wins, a four-rider breakaway was up the road, and the sprinters’ teams had marshalled behind for the chase. But something was wrong. A manageable gap, some 45 seconds at the 10 km-to-go mark, wasn’t dropping.
Lidl-Trek threw its full might into the chase for stage 4 winner Jonathan Milan, driving a classic HTC-High Road style train, but as the kilometers ticked by, the gap stayed stubbornly in place. GPS-based time gaps can be of questionable accuracy, but whatever the actual number, the main problem for the chase was that number wasn’t changing.
Depleted or just discouraged, Milan’s teammates disappeared from the front, the Maglia Ciclamino swarmed by a hodgepodge of riders from Soudal-Quick Step, Visma-Lease a Bike, and other sprint hopefuls. No matter, the gap still didn’t budge much, and in the end the break held off the pack by a comfortable 11 seconds, denying the sprinters a crucial chance at a stage win.
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I don’t hate the sprint teams, and I like Jonathan Milan quite a bit, but I love the scrappy underdogs, and I always cheer for the breakaway, unless some GC dynamics are in play.
Interesting point from lanterne rouge about how lidl trek might like this result actually: they were left to it and couldn’t pull back the break so they’ll be more legitimately able to ask for help on future sprint stages. Actually probably a better outcome for them than losing a sprint, though obviously not as good as winning. Is Milan really better than Merlier though? I’m not sure.