“On the last kilometer I thought about Carcassonne and said to myself: Today is my day,” said the stage winner in Lucca, who only lost 500 meters from the finish line at the Tour de France two years ago on the 15th stage in Carcassonne had been caught by sprinters and narrowly missed out on victory.
“I can’t believe it, our attempt to break away worked extremely well. The final was extremely tough, every lead was at its limit. Ten kilometers from the finish I believed that we could do it,” continued Thomas.
For his team Cofidis, after a long dry spell, it was finally the first WorldTour victory of the 2024 season.
Jonathan Milan (Lidl – Trek) won the field’s sprint for fifth place and thus extended his lead in the points standings.
Crime thriller in Lucca: Thomas snatches the victory away from his fellow escapee
The overall lead is still held by Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), who rolled to the finish without any problems in the peloton, 46 seconds ahead of Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) and 47 seconds ahead of Daniel Felipe Martinez (Bora – hansgrohe).
The Slovenian also holds the mountain jersey, which is worn on behalf of Lilian Calmejane (Intermarché – Wanty). Simon Geschke (Cofidis), who won the first mountain prize of the day in the early stages, also collected points for the Maglia Azzurra. The best young rider and therefore the bearer of the white jersey remains Cian Uijtdebroeks (Visma – Lease a Bike).
In the initial phase, a breakaway quartet formed around Freiburg’s Simon Geschke (Cofidis), which quickly gained a lead of more than two minutes and then leveled off at 1:30 minutes. At the Passo del Bracco (3rd category), after almost 60 kilometers, the peloton increased the pace significantly and shook off some of the sprint specialists. Geschke won the mountain prize at kilometer 62, but the four breakaways were caught shortly afterwards.
Analysis: That’s why the sprinters in Lucca looked down the drain
Tim Merlier, Caleb Ewan and Fernando Gaviria soon came back into the field on the descent, but for Fabio Jakobsen (dsm-unternehmenich – PostNL) it took another 25 kilometers until he found the connection again. 85 kilometers before the finish he was there again and the field drove together towards the three intermediate sprints in Ceparana (KM 99.2), Luni (KM 119.8) and Camaiore (KM 150.2).
On the way to Ceparana, Christophe Laporte (Visma – Lease a Bike) had a serious fall, but was able to continue the race. Kaden Groves (Alpecin – Deceuninck) secured the points.
That hurts! Laporte catches a manhole cover and loses a lot of skin
Shortly after the first sprint, a new breakaway quartet of Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis), Michael Valgren (EF Education – EasyPost), Andrea Pietrobon (Polti – Kometa) and Enzo Paleni (Groupama – FDJ) broke away. Pietrobon secured the second intermediate sprint, the so-called Intergiro sprint, and the four front runners had a lead of almost a minute and a half.
But the four of them didn’t get any further away. Lidl – Trek and Alpecin – Deceuninck controlled the race in the main field with two men each. Groves and Milan’s teams wanted to do a bunch sprint and not let anything go to waste.
Outliers put up a strong fight in the final and get through
Benjamin Thomas secured the third intermediate sprint in Camaiore 28 kilometers from the finish, where there were no points for the Maglia Ciclamino, but only bonuses for the top 3. With a lead of just over a minute, the leading quartet drove into the category 4 climb to Montemagno and hardly lost any ground there.
With 45 seconds left we entered the last ten kilometers and the sprinter teams were slowly starting to feel hectic. When the quartet still had a 25 second lead at the 2,000 meter mark, it was clear: the escapees would get through. Shortly after the Flamme Rouge, Pietrobon attacked from fourth position and opened a good gap, but in the last 50 meters Valgren and Thomas sprinted past – with the best finish for the Frenchman.