Late scare for Sütterlin in Fucecchio; Carapaz, Landa unscathed

Giro d'Italia (st. 2)

German down with 30km remaining into San Baronto climb, completes first Giro road stage with blows and bruises; Mikel & Richard, always well protected by Movistar Team, finish inside main group.

German Pascal Ackermann (BOH) showed his world-class talent by taking his first-ever Grand Tour sprint on stage one of the 2019 Giro d’Italia, a 206km ride from Bologna to Fucecchio under rainy spells and a difficult finale, through the climbs of Montalbano (Cat-3) and San Baronto (Cat-4).

The Movistar Team put themselves into the ‘protection mode’ around their leaders they will adopt as their only goal during this first week of racing. Lluís Mas, Héctor Carretero, Antonio Pedrero and Jasha Sütterlin took care on the flat and the climbs of Mikel Landa and Richard Carapaz, while Andrey Amador and José Joaquín Rojas made sure they were into a good position in the run-in towards the finishing straights. Carapaz -13th overall- and Landa remain 47″ and 1’07”, respectively, behind Maglia Rosa holder Primoz Roglic (TJV).

Sütterlin with his hands and arms covered with bruises after his crash. (c) Movistar Team

The final section was, unfortunately, quite harder for Jasha Sütterlin. The German crashed 3km before the top of the San Baronto GPM, together with Carretero -the Spaniard quickly got back on his bike-, sustaining diverse blows and bruises which didn’t keep him from finishing the stage, yet are bound to take its tall on the ‘Bull of Freiburg’, in a first week with up to five stages over 200km long. Monday will bring the second one, over 220km from Vinci to Orbetello with no major climbs in the second half – yet with strong side / tail winds.

Cover picture (c): BettiniPhoto