With his victory, Mads Pedersen (Trek) now belongs to the exclusive group of professionals who have won a stage at the Giro d’Italia, the Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana.
“It was certainly thrilling for the spectators,” said the ex-world champion with a view to the persecution thriller, “to have finally won in Italy and to have now won all the Grand Tours is really special”.
Certainly five breakaways had the day long, who completed the majority of the 162 kilometers in the lead: Alessandro de Marchi (Jayco – AlUla), Francesco Gavazzi (Eolo – Kometa), Simon Clarke (Israel – Premier Tech), Charlie Quarterman (Corratec – Selle Italia) and Alexandre Delettre (Cofidis) made up the special rankings of the day – and only very shortly before the finish were the two experienced riders de Marchi and Clarke caught as the last escapees a few meters from the line by the chasing field.
Giro d’Italia
Start list for the start of the time trial: who will start the race and when?
UPDATE 05/05/2023 AT 6:29 PM
Ackermann frustrated after Giro sprint
Pedersen emphasized how close the final was from the point of view of the chasing sprinters: “For a long time I thought that we wouldn’t be able to catch the breakaways, it was really close at the end and we only caught them 300 meters from the finish line. We and them other teams had to use all our strength to close the gap.”
Ackermann narrowly beaten – Pedersen gets Grand Tour triple
Giro: “Terrible to lose like that”
“It’s terrible to lose like that,” Clark admitted at the finish. “I would rather have been caught 10 kilometers than 200 meters from the finish,” said the Australian, “we probably needed ten to fifteen seconds more advantage – but if you don’t try, you don’t even get that far.”
Mark Cavendish was not in the sprint, the Brit lost the connection early on and reached the finish, accompanied by three teammates and marked by his wild crash the day before, almost 20 minutes behind.
The ex-world champion fell to the ground again today, a gust of wind killed him on the descent from the first mountain classification of the day, he had to complete around 100 kilometers behind the field.
Giro analysis: Voigt explains the failure of the breakaway duo
Giro: Leknessund defends pink jersey
The Norwegian Andreas Leknessund (DSM) defended the pink jersey for another day, as did Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) the lead in the mountains classification and Milan (Bahrain) the top in the points classification.
Lennard Kämna from the Bora-hansgrohe team safely crossed the finish line in the peloton, as did world champion Remco Evenepoel, who fell twice yesterday, and all the other top drivers in the overall standings. However, Primoz Roglic (Jumbo) and Geraint Thomas (Ineos) had to close the gap to the peloton in the last 15 kilometers after a defect in a wild chase and thus kept their chances.
Giro route: profile of the 7th stage – mountain arrival at Gran Sasso
Giro d’Italia
Giro preview, stage 1: the stars chase seconds in the time trial
UPDATE 05/05/2023 AT 5:45 PM
Paris – Roubaix (L)
Voigt exclusively: That’s the German chances
UPDATE 08/04/2023 AT 21:27