IN THE car and on the bike, it was a day to forget for the team from Down Under, writes JOHN TREVORROW:
AUSTRALIAN team Bike Exchange had an unhappy day in an exciting stage 6 of the Giro d’Italia.
On another day of cold and wet conditions, Swiss Gino Mader (Bahrain-Victorious) pulled off a miraculous victory riding clear of his breakaway companions to just hold off a charging peloton led by a formidable Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers). While Hungarian Attila Valter (Groupama-FDJ) managed to put in the ride of his life to take the nation’s first ever leaders Maglia Rosa.
But the high drama happened earlier on the final climb when the Bike Exchange team car ran into the back of Pieter Serry (Deceuninck-QuickStep) who was dropping back from the peloton knocking him to the ground. Fortunately, the 32-year-old Belgian remounted and was able to continue in the race but he was not happy.
The driver, BikeExchange assistant sports director Gene Bates was subsequently eliminated from the race and lead sports director Matt white, who was in the passenger seat, was fined 2000 swiss francs.
The challenges for Team BikeExchange didn’t stop there with team leader Simon Yates losing a valuable 17 seconds on main contenders Bernal, Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Dan Martin and Ciccone. But he was not alone with Englishman Hugh Carthy (EF Education-Nippo), Aleksandr Vlasov (Astana-Premier Tech)
The breakaway took a while to establish but once the eight riders established themselves they went out to a maximum lead of five and a half minutes. But Ineos sent out a message to everyone very early letting the peloton know who was in charge. They set a frenetic pace over the top of the days first major climb led by the indefatigable Filllipo Ganna who was again amazing.
Approaching the day’s final 16 km climb six riders including GC hopefuls Alberto Bettiol (EF Education), Guilo Cicconi (Trek) and Romain Bardet (DSM) made a bold move to go clear but again it was Ganna who dragged them back as the road turned skywards.
On the final climb Mader forged clear of the depleting breakaway and managed to just stay clear to take his first world tour victory , erasing the memories of being caught just before the line by Primoz Roglic in the Paris Nice last month and redemption for the Bahrain Victorious team who lost team leader Mikel Landa in a terrible crash the previous day.
Bernal then took second place on the stage, responding to his team’s ruthless pressure with a strong attack only 1.5 kms to go, and only Evenepoel, Ciccone and Dan Martin (Israel Start-UP Nation) could go with him.
Bernal grabbed six bonus seconds with Marin getting the four seconds for helping himself to six bonus seconds, while Martin claimed four bonus seconds for third.
Valter now leads the race by 11 seconds over Evenepoel, with Bernal third at 16 seconds, and Vlasov fourth at 24 seconds. Louis Vervaeke (Alpecin-Fenix), who also with Valter in that stage 4 breakaway, kept himself in the top-five by placing 22nd on the stage, while Carthy, Caruso, Ciccone, Martin, and Yates round out the top-10 and all still within 49 seconds of the race lead.
The new race leader could not contain his excitement after his brilliant ride. “I could cry, I’m so happy. It’s just incredible for me,” Valter said.
“It’s good to make jokes in the morning but to really believe it is another story. I cannot be more surprised and more happy. I was planning to do it. I knew I had the good climbing legs this Giro to be better than the first five riders. I just had to hang onto the best climbers and I was really motivated to do it. Of course, the motivation gives extra power. I just hope to enjoy this jersey with the team as much as possible.”
JOHN TREVORROW is a multiple Australian champion road racer and Olympian who has been doing media commentary at the Tour de France for more than 20 years.
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