Luxembourg’s Bob Jungels on Sunday claimed the first sprint win of his career on the 15th stage of the Giro d’Italia as race leader Tom Dumoulin retained the maglia rosa.
Quick-Step Floors rider Jungels, who wore the leader’s jersey earlier in the 100th edition of the race, finished the 199km ride from Valdengo to Bergamo just ahead of Colombian favorite Nairo Quintana of Movistar after finding himself in the rare position of a bunch sprint.
With a host of fellow general classification contenders and climbers for company, Jungels took his chance 100m from the finish to claim his maiden win on the three-week Grand Tour.
Photo: AFP
“This is my first sprint victory. To do it at the Giro in front of these guys is wonderful. It’s not easy to realize, but I’m super happy with this victory,” said Jungels, who finished sixth overall on his debut last year. “I knew I had good legs today, as I felt good in the climbs. I tried my luck in the final climb, but it was a bit longer than I expected. In the downhill I was in a perfect position, on the wheel of [Domenico] Pozzovivo for sprinting.”
Team Sunweb leader Dumoulin and the chasing peloton were given the same time to allow the big Dutchman to maintain an overall lead of 2 minutes, 41 seconds on Quintana before the race’s third and final rest day yesterday.
Dumoulin has been in the race lead since crushing the field to win the 10th stage time trial on Tuesday last week in Montefalcone, a win that pushed Quintana into second place overall, nearly three minutes behind.
Before the crucial third week takes the peloton into the mountains, where Quintana is expected to come into his own, the Colombian climbing specialist has been trying to chip away at the lead.
A day after countering Quintana when he attacked on the climb to Oropa, where the Dutchman won his second stage of this edition to tighten his grip on the maglia rosa, the Sunweb riders were on tenterhooks all day.
“It was a hard day at a very high average speed. There were a lot of breakaways, but always some teams weren’t happy with it,” Dumoulin said. “Eventually after 110km, a group went. Then it was a very hard finale with a lot of favorites attacking, but we stayed calm and it was a good day for us.”
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