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Monday, May 13, 2024
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2023 Tour de France | 2023 Giro d'Italia
If you want peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies. - Desmond Tutu
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Current racing:
- May 4 - 26: Giro d'Italia
Upcoming racing:
- May 14 - 19: 4 Days of Dunkirk
Latest completed racing:
- May 11: Tour du Finistère
- May 5: Tro-Bro Léon
- May 4: GP du Morbihan
- May 1: Rund um den Finanzplatz Eschborn-Frankfurt
- April 21 - 28: Tour of Turkey
- April 23 - 28: Tour de Romandie
- April 26 - 28: Vuelta Asturias
- April 21: Liège-Bastogne-Liège
- April 15 - 19: Tour of the Alps
- April 17: La Flèche Wallone
We posted the report from the race organizer and stage winner Olav Kooij's Team Visma | Lease a Bike with the results.
Here's the report from Jhonatan Narvaez's Team INEOS Grenadiers:
Jhonatan Narvaez came agonisingly close to winning his second stage at this year's Giro d'Italia, but his daring late raid was denied metres from the line.
Narvaez attacked on the final uncategorised climb of the day, carrying a lead of mere seconds on the descent into Naples.
His lead grew slightly as he entered the final technical final kilometres, but he was chased down the long finishing straight, as the sprinters' teams prevailed behind, with Olav Kooij taking the stage win.
Jhonatan Narvaez winning stage one of this year's Giro d'Italia. Sirotti photo
There was no change overall as the race heads into the first rest day as the GC riders came home as part of a reduced bunch.
Earlier, fantastic teamwork had helped Geraint Thomas recover quickly from a small crash with around 50km to go, with Tobias Foss, Ben Swift and Connor Swift rallying around their leader and quickly returning him to the peloton.
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Here's the Giro report from Julian Alaphilippe's Team Soudal Quick-Step:
Julian Alaphilippe turned a quiet and rather uneventful stage into a memorable one after going on the attack for the third time in the first week of the race, this time 30 kilometers from the finish of the stage that concluded in Napoli. Having come close to victory in Rapolano Terme, the double World Champion showed he is determined to leave his mark on the Corsa Rosa and continue his pursuit of what would be a well-deserved win.
Julian Alaphilippe leads an attack late in stage nine.
Arguably the most combative rider of the race since the whole thing got underway in Venaria Reale, Alaphilippe threw caution to the wind on the first of the three small climbs spicing up the last hour of racing on Sunday, launching a stinging acceleration that helped him bridge across to the original breakaway, where he was soon joined by three other men.
Julian produced a brilliant ride, helping the front group take their advantage to almost 30 seconds. Every time the road went up, the Frenchman pulled hard, without looking back and without giving up, his all-or-nothing move putting pressure on the peloton, who couldn’t make the catch despite seeing him up the road. On the final hill, Alaphilippe left his last companion behind and continued to press on, alone against the sprinters’ teams who wanted to bring everything back together before the closing kilometer in Napoli.
It took a late burst of speed of Jhonatan Narvaez (Ineos Grenadiers) for Julian to be caught just 500 meters from the top of the ascent, from where only six kilometers remained. The bunch got its wish, and the winner emerged after a mass gallop, which saw Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) prevail on the line. Jan Hirt concluded with the peloton and retained his place in the top ten of the general classification going into the first rest day of the race.
“The attack wasn’t planned, but I found myself in a good position on the climb, noticed that the bunch was nervous, so I decided to try something. I gave it my all, but in the end, I missed a bit to stay away. I am happy with my shape, I enjoy the race and I am also content with how I feel. Now I’m looking forward to a nice rest day, after which I will keep trying. As I said before, the race is still long”, Julian said at the finish in Napoli.
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Here's the report from Kevin Vermaerke's Team dsm-firmenich PostNL:
A potential day for the breakaway, the second longest stage of the race saw the peloton take on 214 kilometres from Avezzano to Naples. However, with a two rider move going almost from the flag drop it seemed as if the bunch was happy to set up a sprint finish. Yet, with some hills in the finale and twisting city streets around Naples, there was a chance a later attacking move and break could go clear.
Coming into those hills the team focused on positioning Kevin Vermaerke, who then launched out of the peloton to follow an attack from Alaphilippe. Initially getting a gap of around 15 seconds over the peloton with around 20 kilometres to go, the bunch got organised and began to set tempo, while Vermaerke’s group split up, with the Team dsm-firmenich PostNL rider brought back ahead of the penultimate climb. In the bunch, the rest of the guys looked after Romain Bardet well who finished safely in the peloton, in the reduced group sprint.
Vermaerke said: “It was already a hard effort to get the gap. Every little acceleration you have to do to close the wheel to get back in the pace line takes a bit out of the legs. It was also a bit further from the line than expected, I went through the group and then realised we still had 25 kilometres to go in the headwind on the flat road. The goal was to be up there and try something. Maybe if the composition of the group was a bit different and we got a bit more time then it could have been different. You never know if you don’t try. It’s been a hard first nine days and we’ve had a bit of sickness and injury in the team, but we’ll try to recover tomorrow. A Grand Tour has plenty of options coming up so we will take each day for what comes and try again in the next days.”
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach Matt Winston added: “It was a long stage where we had to really focus for a hectic final. The goal was to he active in the final with Kevin, and I think he did a really solid job but didn’t pay off this time. I’m happy we go into the rest day after four days of really positive racing by the team here so we’ll recover and regroup, and look to build on that next week.”
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And here's the report from Laurence Pithie's Team Groupama-FDJ:
Laurence Pithie and the entire Groupama-FDJ cycling team had high expectations from stage 9 of the Giro to Naples, this Sunday. Unfortunately, their hopes were dashed when the New Zealand sprinter suffered a puncture just as the race got crazy. The Kiwi lost more than a minute with the incident and was never able to return. Lewis Askey took part in the attacks in the final before Cyril Barthe obtained twentieth place in the sprint won by Olav Kooij.
Laurence Pithie after stage two of the 2024 Paris-Nice.
The first week of the Giro d’Italia was to come to an end this Sunday, with the longest stage of the event so far taking the riders to Naples. From Avezano, 214 kilometers were on the peloton’s menu, and if there was ever any slight hope for the breakaway, it quickly vanished. From km 0, Mirco Maestri and Andrea Pietrobon took the lead, and were not followed. The Polti-Kometa duo therefore led the way throughout the day, with the peloton in control two minutes behind.
The race proved rather quiet for two thirds of the route, but it all got more lively approaching the coast with about fifty kilometres to go. The Groupama-FDJ cycling team then gathered around Laurence Pithie and even was in the very first positions when the first of the four final climbs was tackled. Yet, at the top, the New Zealand rider suffered a stroke of bad luck.
“The team worked really well, everything was going really well, then Laurence had a puncture at the worst time,” said Frédéric Guesdon. “The race was very fast at that point. We were quite far away, and we were only able to pass 3/4 cars to help him out. We still tried to bring him back, his teammates chased for him, but it was going too fast in front, and it was too technical to return. It’s very disappointing because I honestly think he had the legs for a top-5 today.”
As he lost more than one minute because of the incident, Laurence Pithie quickly saw his chances go out of the window. Besides, some strong attacks occurred in the peloton, and Lewis Askey followed one of them about twenty-five kilometres from the line. The Englishman got a gap with Julian Alaphilippe and Nicola Conci before the sprinters’ teams brought it all back together. Jhonatan Narvaez tried to surprise the fast men with an attack on the final climb, but the pack came back in the very last metres to fight for victory.
Olav Kooij took the win while Cyril Barthe got involved in the sprint and placed twentieth. That’s how the first week of the Giro ended for all the riders. “We came here with a lot of ambitions, especially with Laurence, unfortunately it didn’t work out as we had hoped until now,” said Frédéric. “He wasn’t feeling at his best at the start and there is a high level of sprinters. Yet, the boys’ physical condition is good. They committed a lot and did a good job in all the stages where we could play something. We would have deserved better results. We’re obviously satisfied with Enzo’s fourth place. He wasn’t at his best the last two days following his crash on the time trial. The rest day comes at the right time, we’ll recover well tomorrow, and then refocus on next week.”
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