Cycling
Tour winner Vingegaard dominates at Tirreno-Adriatico
Jonas Vingegaard won the fifth stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico long-distance journey as a soloist. photo
© Fabio Ferrari/LaPresse/AP/dpa
Jonas Vingegaard shows his extra class at Tirreno-Adriatico and takes the lead. Things aren’t going so well for Lennard Kämna.
With a show of force on the first mountainous stage, the Danish cycling star Jonas Vingegaard took the lead in the Tirreno-Adriatico long-distance journey in Italy.
The Tour de France winner won the fifth section in Valle Castellana as a soloist. In the overall standings, Vingegaard is 54 seconds ahead of Spaniard Juan Ayuso and 1:20 minutes ahead of Australian Jai Hindley, captain of the German team Bora-hansgrohe. His teammate Lennard Kämna is already more than three minutes behind and fell out of the top ten.
Vingegaard attacked at the San Giacomo Pass with almost 29 kilometers to go. No one could follow the approach on the steepest part of the climb, and Hindley gave up the hunt alone without success. At the top of the pass, Vingegaard had a lead of almost a minute, which he extended until the finish.
Kämna reached the finish almost three minutes behind
The German hope Kämna, who was in tenth place in the overall ranking before the start of the stage, was already left behind in the Vingegaard attack. He reached the goal almost three minutes behind. The man from Bremen finished the race between the seas in fourth place last year and later finished in the top ten of the Giro d’Italia in May. The Tour of Italy is also Kämna’s first big goal this season.
Meanwhile, Chris Froome had to withdraw from the race due to a hand injury. “Unfortunately it has been confirmed that I have broken my scaphoid bone. I am now going home for an operation,” the 38-year-old Brit announced on Instagram. The four-time Tour de France winner fell in the back third of the peloton on Tuesday in the final of the second stage from Camaiore to Follonica. Initially, no serious injury was feared.
The overall ranking will be decided on Monte Petrano on Saturday. The almost eleven kilometer long and on average 7.9 percent steep climb forms the finale of the 180 kilometer long stage.