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Friday, May 17, 2024

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2023 Tour de France | 2023 Giro d'Italia

Success is often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable. - Coco Chanel

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Current racing:

• May 4 - 26: Giro d'Italia
• May 14 - 19: 4 Days of Dunkirk

Upcoming racing:

• May 18: Veenendaal - Veenendaal Classic

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• 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

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Giro d'Italia stage twelve reports

We posted the report from the race organizer and stage winner Julian Alaphilippe's Team Soudal Quick-Step with the results.

Here's the report from Julian Alaphilippe's breakaway companion Mirco Maestri's Team Polti Kometa:

A day more like a classic, with up to ten very hard walls looking for the finish in Fano, showed the grit and quality of Mirco Maestri, giving a great show and making Team Polti Kometa dream.

The adventure of captain Mirco Maestri started at the 65th kilometre of the race, in Montelupone. The ascent to the second of the hills included in the course, led to a selection in the group of attackers where he was already riding with big names such as Hepburn (Jayco), Affini (Visma) or Clarke (Israel). Maestri took off at this point with Alaphilippe (Soudal QuickStep), looking for the lead in this very hard day of the Giro d’Italia.

There were almost 140 kilometres to go. But the ambition of the Italian and the Frenchman allowed them to make their way. In Maestri’s case, to wear the Polti Kometa jersey, which never ceases to shine in the race. To dream of reaching the finish line in Fano victorious, improving on Pietrobon’s third place and Lonardi’s identical place, both of whom have already finished third in this Giro in previous stages.

Mirco Maestri on the podium after the stage. Sirotti photo

Behind, Davide Piganzoli also took advantage of the toughness of the course to filter into a chasing group of almost 30 riders, in which the presence of several riders fighting for the general classification stood out. Despite having more than 2 minutes gap over the leader’s peloton, the lack of understanding and the pace of the main group ended up neutralising this attempt.

Oblivious to all this, the leading duo of Maestri and Alaphilippe continued to make their way with a gap of over 6 minutes. All the hot spots of the day, the punctuated climbs, the sprints and the Intergiro, were for a Maestri who generously collaborated in the relays. But the chasing group was approaching before the final wall, the climb to Monte Giove. The Italian could not withstand the hard ramps, and said goodbye to his options with 11 kilometres to go but completing a great performance. He was the protagonist for another day. Alaphilippe took the victory in Fano, Maestri held on in the chasing group to be ninth at the finish.

Mirco Maestri: “It was wonderful to be able to face this breakaway with a champion like Alaphilippe, whom I admire a lot. I will always remember him. We agreed not to attack each other, to understand each other and to make our way. I would have loved to have won a stage that we had marked out, although it was difficult because there were many riders who were looking to win. I gave everything I had, it was a very hard day, possibly the hardest of my life. Alaphilippe helped me and encouraged me to keep going, although on the last wall I couldn’t follow him. I think it was really difficult to beat him, but we got the best possible result. When he came to thank me at the finish line, I congratulated him on his victory”.

Jesús Hernandez, sports director, accompanied Mirco Maestri from the Team Polti Kometa team car in the breakaway: “Mirco’s performance was wonderful. With commitment and ambition, he faced a breakaway with a double world champion. What’s less important is the result at the finish line, I’ll keep Maestri’s attitude and courage”.

This Friday, the Giro d’Italia faces the 13th stage between Riccione and Cento, over 179 kilometres, which is completely flat and should favour the sprinters.

Here's the Giro report from second-place Jhonatan Narvaez's Team INEOS Grenadiers:

Jhonatan Narvaez powered to second place in Fano after an impressive ride as a part of the day’s breakaway.

Jhonatan Narvaez finishing second. Sirotti photo

After a rapid start, in which 54 kilometres of racing were completed in the first hour, Jhonny made his way into a move of about 20 which gained over a minute as the peloton seemed content to let the break decide the day. 

But then the counterattacks kicked off, with another group containing another twenty riders going clear and merging with Narvaez’s group. Filippo Ganna was well positioned to ensure he made the selection, giving the Grenadiers two riders at the head of the race.

This huge, 40 man move would not last long, with an initial split of two, and then nine emerging from it. Narvaez, with the help of Ganna, made the group of nine, and worked hard to chase down the duo up front. 

Onto the final climb of the day, and the duo was still a minute up the road. Narvaez would fly up the 20% gradients, and fight valiantly to cut into the gap. It was not to be however, with Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal Quickstep) staying clear to take a solo win. 

Narvaez would sprint to second place, to continue his fine run of form. 

Seventh-place Simon Clarke's Team Israel-Premier Tech posted this report:

A few seconds after he took time to compose himself upon crossing the finish line, Simon Clarke looked up and raised a huge smile.

“All in all, a good day,” he later said of the Giro d’Italia’s unrelenting 12th stage between Martinsicuro and Fano, one that took a little over four hours to complete despite a challenging 193-kilometer parcours. “No regrets, I left it all out there.”

Clarke was IPT’s highest finisher on the day, taking seventh following a breathless day of racing, his best result since the Australian Road Race Championships in January.

Simon Clarke finishes seventh. Sirotti photo

“Unfortunately this year’s Giro doesn’t really appeal to the punchers – there wasn’t a heap of stages you could circle,” he adds. “But the mini Strade Bianche day and today were those to have a good crack on. I maybe hit out a little aggressively in the Strade day so I went for a different tactic here.”

Unsurprisingly, nearly every team in the Giro wanted to place somebody in the breakaway today, which predictably led to a first hour in which nearly 60 kilometers were covered. However, as the riders neared the end of their foray along the Adriatic coastline and headed towards a number of punchy climbs in-land, Clarke found himself part of a four-rider breakaway that quickly gained a stable advantage over the peloton.

He says: “That ended up working out as it meant I didn’t have to use energy bridging across on the first climb.”

The 37-year-old’s chances of adding a Giro stage victory to those he has won at the Tour de France (one) and Vuelta a Espana (two) were reduced when the group swelled to nearly 40 riders. One of those who bridged across was Julian Alaphilippe (SOQ), who eventually soloed to the victory.

“Once the group went to 37 riders or whatever it was, it was going to be super tricky to negotiate on my own,” says Clarke. “I’ve been in those situations before; you have to stay at the front and follow the moves. A group that size never stays together, it always splits.

“It actually split a lot quicker than I thought today – I followed a little acceleration and before I knew it it was a nine-man TTT for the rest of the day. Alaphilippe was so strong, we were fully committed and we couldn’t eat into his time gap.”

Clarke came into the finish as part of a four-rider group contesting for sixth place, with Italian rider Matteo Trentin the only rider to pip him to the line.

Here's the report from eighth-place Gijs Leemreize's Team dsm-firmenich PostNL:

Before Thursday’s stage 12 at the Giro d’Italia, Team dsm-firmenich PostNL announced that unfortunately Fabio Jakobsen would not start the day due to discomfort from his crash the previous day. The rest of the squad were motivated to show themselves at the front of the race and the team came up with plans to make sure they were involved in the action.

It was a fierce start as expected with attack after attack at the head of the race before eventually a large break of around 40 riders went clear which included both Kevin Vermaerke and Gijs Leemreize for the team. Things then became tactical in the group with a few riders close on GC so the attacks behind the leading duo of Maestri and Alaphillippe started; with both Leemreize and Vermaerke represented in several counter attacks that there were brought back. Eventually a group of nine broke the elastic, that included Leemreize, and they set off in pursuit of the leading duo, while behind Vermaerke’s group was slowly reeled in by the peloton.

Leemreize’s group was never able to catch Alaphilippe though and on the final steep climb of the day things exploded in his group, as some riders looked to push on. Riding at his own pace, Leemreize was able to catch up with some of his competitors on the climb and over the top. Coming into the final kilometre he launched an attack to try and get sixth place but was just caught before the line, eventually finishing in a good eighth place with the team.

Gijs Leemreize finishing eighth. Sirotti photo

After the stage Leemreize explained: “It was a nice day I think. It was really hard in the start but it was good to get Kevin and I into the main break. The first half of the Giro wasn’t so good for me personally, I didn’t feel great and was a bit sick so I’m really happy that the shape is improving and be there in the front. We were a bit surprised with how early Alaphilippe and Maestri went for it. We knew though that Kevin and I had to make sure one of us was in any counter group because it can often then stall behind, and I was the one who made it into the counter group that went, and that’s then what happened behind. The guys out front kept up a really high speed because the nine of us were riding quite fast and it definitely wasn’t easy in the chase but they were just going full for it, so fair play to them. We’ll keep looking for more results together as a team in the next days.”

Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach Matt Winston added: “It was a shame to lose Fabio this morning, but we were determined to go out racing. We set a few plans to make sure that we were really in the race. It was great that Gijs and Kevin could make it into the break and they worked well together, following the moves. A group of nine with Gijs in it then went clear. He raced really well from that moment on and battled hard to get the best possible result. I think he did a solid job and got a nice top ten, while behind the rest of the guys came home safely in the peloton. We’ll now look towards the sprint finish tomorrow where we’ll set up Tobias.”

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