Frenchman Nacer Bouhanni sprinted to victory in the 10th stage of the Giro d’Italia on Tuesday after a mainly flat 173km run that started in Modena and finished in Salsomaggiore Terme, Italy.
It was the third stage win of the race for the Francaise des Jeux rider, who again held off Italian Giacomo Nizzolo of Trek Factory Racing in a repeat of his two previous stage triumphs.
Australian Michael Matthews of Orica-GreenEDGE came home third in a mass sprint as compatriot Cadel Evans of BMC Racing Team retained the overall leader’s pink jersey.
Photo: EPA
Following Monday’s rest day, Bouhanni triumphed for the third time in eight days as a mass pile-up with 700m to go played havoc with the peloton racing for home.
“It’s never easy,” said the French champion, who solidified his position as points leader and holder of the red jersey with Tuesday’s win.
“It was pretty fast in the final sprint. Nizzolo attacked, but I was able to go past him,” added the 23-year-old, who equalled compatriot Laurent Jalabert’s haul of three stage wins on the 1999 Giro.
Photo: AFP
Under sunny skies, Italian duo Andrea Fedi of Neri Sottoli and Marco Bandiera of Androni Giocattoli-Venezuela launched an escape in the early stages that was doomed from the outset.
Their maximum lead reached 8 minutes, 30 seconds before the peloton swept them up with 9km left to set up a mass sprint for the line.
Evans maintained his 57 second-lead over Colombian Rigoberto Uran of Omega Pharma-Quick Step as both riders came home with the pack.
Photo: AFP
However, the 2011 Tour de France winner lost one of his teammates when Belgian Yannick Eijssen fell victim to a crash in the last hour of the stage. BMC later confirmed that Eijssen is out of the race, even if X-rays showed he did not break any bones.
“We only hear these things on the radio, we don’t know what happens, and I only saw the images on TV after the race at the finish,” Evans said of his colleague’s crash. “To see a neck brace on anyone is scary — they say it’s only a precautionary measure — but of course we miss one teammate. It’s a big blow as well to us as a team.”
Evans will hope to increase his overall lead in today’s 41.9km individual time trial, but had to first negotiate yesterday’s 11th stage, a 249km run from Collecchio, near Parma, to Savona that features a category-two climb before a descent to the finish.
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