Giro d’Italia – Geraint Thomas and Primoz Roglic trail João Almeida – Lennard Kämna defends his sixth place

The German hopeful was unable to follow with eight kilometers to go when the favorites attacked, but then maintained his pace, catching up and even shaking off all of his direct rivals in the battle for places six to ten.

“We looked at the route here two or three weeks ago. So I knew what to expect. I paced myself accordingly and drove the way I thought would be fastest for me,” explained Kämna at the stage finish satisfied.

In the overall standings, Thomas defended his lead because he was able to easily follow Roglic in all his attacks and is now 29 seconds ahead of the Slovenian and 39 seconds ahead of Almeida. “The day went really well. Primoz couldn’t outrun me and I made up time on the others,” said Thomas, who seemed very confident, about another day in the pink jersey.

“I wasn’t sure how Primoz was doing today, but he really pushed the tube again in the last two kilometers. The fact that I made up time on Almeida is good, but I just have to keep going consistently and it mountain after mountain tackle”, the 37-year-old looked ahead to the crucial next few days on his birthday.

Jumbo and Ineos accelerate on the first mountain

Kämna is 4:27 behind Ireland’s Eddie Dunbar and Italy’s Damiano Caruso in sixth place, 16 seconds ahead of second-placed Pinot.

The first section of the Dolomites began with a flurry of attacks over the first 35 kilometers until a seven-man lead group formed around Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ), Aurelien Paret-Peintre (AG2R-Citroen) and Filippo Zana (Jayco-AlUla).

After 40 kilometers, Pinot won the mountain prize at the Passo della Crosetta (Cat. 1), where in the peloton first Jumbo – Visma and then the Ineos Grenadiers set a high pace and temporarily reduced the field to around 40 men.

After the descent, however, the Brits relaxed again and many helpers from the competition came back on the long, almost flat middle part of the stage. Now the lead of the seven frontrunners, which had been small until then, grew steadily to around six minutes before Thomas’ team of helpers – above all with Laurens De Plus – increased the number of strokes again on the second category 1 mountain, the Forcella Cibiana.

Pinot conquers the mountain jersey

Pinot was the first to get the 40 points there as well, taking over the lead in the mountains classification from Ben Healy of Ireland. But the Frenchman was still in contention for the stage win, as the six leaders with twelve kilometers to go at the foot of the two-part final climb still had a lead of 4:45 minutes.

On the climb from Coi, Pinot and Zana left all their companions behind, while a good eight kilometers before the end, Jumbo – Visma attacked in the field: Sepp Kuss exploded the pace, Roglic followed on the rear wheel and only Thomas and Dunbar were able to keep up.

Almeida, on the other hand, had to pull away and relied on the help of noble helper Jay Vine to keep the deficit within limits. Due to the aggravation of the kiss, Kämna initially fell far behind.

Kämna with a furious finale

Around 6.5 kilometers from the finish, Roglic then rode his own attack and only Thomas went with him. Kuss rejoined the pair shortly after, but Dunbar was now left behind. At the top of the pass with five kilometers to go, the trio had a lead of around 15 seconds on Almeida, Vine and Dunbar.

The gap melted a little at the beginning of the three-kilometer final climb when Vine went full throttle again. But in the last two kilometers, Roglic and Thomas pulled away from their pursuers again and finally crossed the finish line 21 seconds ahead of Almeida.

At the front of the race, almost two minutes earlier, Zana Pinot wrestled down in the sprint and celebrated the day’s victory in the Tricolore jersey. Kämna finished 14th three minutes later and had overtaken several of his rivals in the last five kilometers for the top ten places in the overall standings.

Tomorrow the 19th stage will lead to the mountain finish at the Drei Zinnen in the Dolomites, before the mountain time trial will follow on Saturday after this royal stage as the final endurance test for all top riders.