Escorted up three long climbs by his powerful Ineos Grenadiers teammates, Richard Carapaz on Sunday shook off an early crash to hold onto the Giro d’Italia overall lead during his first day wearing the pink jersey.
Team Trek-Segafredo rider Giulio Ciccone got into an early breakaway and then launched a solo attack on the finishing climb to win the 15th stage.
Carapaz, who had taken the lead a day earlier, remained seven seconds ahead of Jai Hindley and 30 seconds ahead of Joao Almeida.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Carapaz, the 2019 Giro d’Italia champion and an Olympic gold medalist last year, was involved in a mass crash early on when he fell off his bike onto the grass lining a flat road.
Carapaz said there was “no consequence at all” from the crash.
“I just had to change bikes,” he said. “Then it went smoothly. The scenario of the race was pretty good. The first part was hard. Then we had it under control.”
For his third career Giro victory after also winning stages in 2016 and 2019, Ciccone was cheered on by large crowds lining the cobblestoned streets in the finale.
As is his tradition, Ciccone — who wore the yellow jersey for two stages during the 2019 Tour de France — threw his sunglasses into the crowd just before crossing the finish line.
“This is my most beautiful win. It’s better than the yellow jersey at the Tour de France, better than my first wins at the Giro because I went through difficult times in the past two years, with crashes, illnesses and COVID-19,” Ciccone said.
Ciccone clocked 4 hours, 37 minutes over the 178km from Rivarolo Canavese to Cogne, Italy.
The final climb to Cogne was a lengthy 22.2km, but was steep only at the start and had an average gradient of just 4.3 percent.
Requiring about an hour of climbing, it was still a challenge and when Ciccone attacked with 18.8km to go, his breakaway companions had no answer.
Santiago Buitrago crossed second, 1:31 behind, while Antonio Pedrero crossed third, 2:19 behind.
“I chose to attack solo with 19 kilometers to go because it was the steepest part of the climb and I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to drop everyone later on,” Ciccone said.
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