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Friday, May 20, 2022

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2021 Tour de France | 2022 Giro d'Italia

Start every day off with a smile and get it over with. - W. C. Fields

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Current racing:

• May 6 - 29: Giro d'Italia

Upcoming racing:

• May 21: Veenendaal - Veenendaal
• May 21: Tour du Finistère
  

Latest completed racing:

• May 15: Tro-Bro Léon
• May 14: Grand Prix du Morbihan
• May 3 - 8: 4 Jours de Dunkerque
• April 26 - May 1: Tour de Romandie
• April 29 - May 1: Vuelta Asturias
• May 1: Rund um den Finanzplatz Eschborn - Frankfurt
• April 24: Liège-Bastogne-Liège

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Giro d'Italia stage twelve team reports

We posted the report from second-place Lorenzo Rota's Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert team with the results.

Here’s the Giro report from third-place Gijs Leemreize’s Team Jumbo-Visma:

Gijs Leemreize has clinched a podium in the Giro d'Italia. The 22-year-old Dutchman, trained in the Team Jumbo-Visma Development Team, rode away from a large breakaway group with two other riders. In the sprint, he had to acknowledge Stefano Oldani and Lorenzo Rota’s superiority. For the youngster, it was his first podium place in a grand tour.

Gijs Leemreize finishes third. Sirotti photo

With three third-category climbs, the twelfth stage between Parma and Genoa promised to be a battle between the attackers. After an attractive opening phase, 24 riders managed to get away. Pascal Eenkhoorn and Leemreize were present on behalf of Team Jumbo-Visma.

The grand tour debutants made a strong impression and Leemreize reacted well when Rota broke away on the day's second climb. With Oldani, the trio quickly took a one-minute lead on a chasing group, which didn't manage to come closer.

It enabled Leemreize, who had already finished sixth in stage four, to fight for the day's victory. Although the youngster tried to surprise his breakaway companions twice in the final kilometre, he was beaten by the fast Italians.

"This was the best I could do", Leemreize said. "I knew I had to try something because if I sprinted, I would be third anyway. In the last kilometre I tried to create a gap twice, hoping they would look at each other, but unfortunately, they closed the gap."

Partly thanks to Eenkhoorn, Leemreize managed to attack on the second climb. "When Rota went, Pascal said: 'This is a good moment to go'. I went with Oldani, which worked out perfectly. In hindsight, I maybe should have tried to go solo a little earlier; the chasers were at forty seconds."

With a sixth and a third place, Leemreize can be proud of his first Giro and the development he is going through. "It's going well so far and I have the feeling my shape will be good for the remainder of this Giro. These kind of performances give me a lot of confidence and I now know that the grand tours suit me well. If I can continue like this, there will be more opportunities this Giro."

Here's the report from sixth-place Wilco Kelderman's Bora-hansgrohe squad:

With 204 km, the longest stage of the Giro was on the menu today. The first 100 km steadily went slightly uphill until coming to the Passo del Bocco. A little too hard for the sprinters, but not hard enough to force a battle between the GC riders, the stage was tailored for the break.

After the start in Parma, there was a hard fight to make the leading group, which only formed after 65 km. BORA - hansgrohe was represented by Wilco Kelderman in the 25-rider group. With 50km remanning, a trio managed to distance themselves from the leaders and on the Valico di Trensasco ascent, Wilco and three others made a move to chase the leading trio. With 15km to go, the first group on the road had an advantage of almost 1 minute, but in the end the chasers including Wilco were unable to close the gap and the trio fought out the victory among themselves. Wilco finished sixth and moved up 10 places in the GC to 13th position.

Wilco Kelderman finishes stage two. Sirotti photo

"We knew that today would be a day for the break. I wanted to go for the stage win and we also had a good chance of doing that successfully. I didn't really expect the attacks to start so early and so it was a bit of a surprise when Oldani, Rota and Leemreize broke away from our group. In retrospect, we may have started too late to bring the trio back and in the end I was only able to fight for fourth place. But I made up a lot of time in the GC today and am now in 13th place." - Wilco Kelderman

"It wasn't easy to get into the breakaway today because everyone knew the parcours was suited to the break. We wanted to try to win the stage with Wilco and he fought really hard, but on the last climb, three riders launched the decisive attack and were unable to be caught. Overall, the guys put in a good performance. Wilco made up 8 minutes in the overall and is now in 13th place, and Jai and Emu also finished safely." - Enrico Gasparotto, Sport Director

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Here’s the report from Davide Ballerini’s Team Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl:

Ahead of the race’s third weekend, the peloton journeyed over 204 kilometers from Parma to Genoa, a city which first featured at the very first edition of the Corsa Rosa, in 1909, when Giovanni Rossignoli took the victory. The day took in three classified climbs before an undulating final 20 kilometers – a route tailored to a breakaway, which escaped the peloton’s clutches only after 50 fast and intense kilometers that witnessed numerous breakaway attempts.

Here's Davide Ballerini racing in stage two. Sirotti photo

Once again, Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl was in the thick of the action, this time with Davide Ballerini. The 2021 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad winner was a prominent figure in the 25-man group, helping it extend the gap on the bunch to more than eight minutes after the first classified climb of the stage. Then, as the escapees stopped working together and instead focusing on solo actions, the Italian was quick to react to a three-man group that zipped clear with around 60 kilometers to go.

At one point, only 16 seconds separated him from the leaders, but as soon as the road went up again, the gap went out and Ballerini was reeled in by the rest of the breakaway, who continued their pursuit on the Valco di Trensasco. It was on its slopes that Davide lost contact with the group, paying for his previous efforts, before concluding a couple of minutes behind Stefano Oldani (Alpecin-Fenix), who took the win from a reduced sprint. The peloton, which included the likes of Mauro Schmid and Mauri Vansevenant, finished nine minutes behind the escapees.

And here's the Giro stage twelve report from Arnaud Démare's Team Groupama-FDJ:

From Parma to Genoa, under quite hot temperatures, stage 12 of the Giro d’Italia proved to be a good day for the breakaway, as Italy’s Stefano Oldani took the win in the port town. Arnaud Démare got to the finish line about twenty minutes later with most of his teammates, after having increased his lead in the points classification during the intermediate sprint located at the start of the stage. Towards Cuneo tomorrow, the course could lead to a sprint.

Démare has tightened his hold on the points leader's jersey. Sirotti photo

The day’s profile towards the Ligurian coast, on Thursday, was one clearly made for the breakaway. As often in such a situation, the fight to get into the right move therefore proved to be the most intense part of the race. Eventually, the breakaway established itself after no less than sixty kilometres. This even occurred just after Arnaud Démare won the intermediate sprint in Borgo Val di Taro.

“Given that there was no breakaway when we approached the sprint, Arnaud gained twelve points, which is the good thing about today“, noted Sébastien Joly. In the lead, the breakaway made of about twenty men included Mathieu van der Poel, Bauke Mollema, Wilco Kelderman and Lucas Hamilton, but no member of the Groupama-FDJ cycling team. “After seeing the guys last night, we felt that they were coming off of two tough stages”, explained Sébastien Joly. “We felt it was best to ease off a bit today. We preferred to manage our strengths ahead of the next few days. We still designated Attila to try to get into the breakaway. He didn’t manage to take it, but it doesn’t matter, he will have other chances in the next few days”.

Everyone then quickly realized that the day’s fugitives were therefore going to go for victory after a hilly second part of the race. Eventually, Stefano Oldani conquered the win in Genoa, in a three-man sprint. The pink jersey group finished nine minutes later with Attila Valter, Tobias Ludvigsson and Ramon Sinkeldam inside it, while the rest of the team came to the finish within the gruppetto nearly twenty minutes behind the winner. “The goal was also to save energy for tomorrow in order to seek another victory”, said Arnaud Démare after the podium.

On Thursday, the Frenchman increased his lead to 86 points for the ciclamino jersey, and now hopes to raise his arms for the third time in this Giro tomorrow, in Cuneo. To do so, he will need to cover 150 kilometres but above all get over a second-category climb about one hundred kilometres from the finish.

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