Giro d'Italia (st. 11)

Ewan (LTS) takes second bunch sprint win at eve of first huge ascent in 2019 'Corsa Rosa', Montoso (Cat-1), on Thursday. Rojas (4th), Amador (6th), Carapaz, Landa all away from troubles.

The bunch of the 2019 Giro d’Italia offered the fans a carbon copy of Tuesday’s action at the 221 km stage eleven, from Carpi to Novi Ligure: a three-man breakaway with Italian ProConti squads in -in today’s case, Frapporti (ANS), Maestri (BRD) and Cima (NIP)-; a relentless chase from the squads with sprinters; and a wide-open bunch finish, where Caleb Ewan (LTS) notched up the day’s victory.

The Movistar Team again got through the day’s effort with no incidents, Lluís Mas, Jasha Sütterlin and Héctor Carretero serving as guides for his five team-mates in the approach to the line, where the Blues registered no time losses. José Joaquín Rojas and Andrey Amador remain in fourth and sixth overall as Richard Carapaz and Mikel Landa completed the day in the eve’s positions, anxiously hoping for their terrain to finally come.

The ‘Corsa Rosa’ will enter the big mountains on Thursday with a 156km route from Cuneo to Pinerolo. It won’t be near as hard as the legendary 1949 stage, one of Fausto Coppi’s most famous exploits, yet there will be the first Cat-1 climb of this year’s race: Montoso (8.8km at 9.5% average gradient), crested with 33km remaining.

Cover picture (c): BettiniPhoto