Bob Jungels (Etixx-Quick Step) moved into maglia rosa on yesterday’s stage at the Giro d’Italia and in doing so, he became the first Luxembourg rider in 57 years to lead the race.
An early breakaway of thirteen riders went away on the stage which saw many riders getting dropped early on. Amongst those to suffer was one of the race favourites, Mikel Landa (Team Sky) who abandoned.
After negotiating the Passo della Collina and Pietracolora, the peloton then turned its attention to the first-category Pian del Falco, the penultimate climb on the course, which was averaging 8.9% in the final four kilometres.
There, Astana and Movistar upped the pace and stage 8 winner Gianluca Brambilla was dropped from the main group.
Leader in the white jersey classification, Bob Jungels stayed with the best and even went to the front to pull after Andrey Amador, after the Costa Rican, who was sitting in third in the general classification, attacked in an attempt to seize the pink jersey.
Following a daredevil descent, Brambilla made the junction on the first slopes of the last climb and navigated through the field, moving to the front and putting in the yards in order to help Jungels close the gap to Amador, who was 50 seconds up the road at that point.
The effort of the maglia rosa wearer made the difference, as the group lost just a handful of seconds to the Movistar rider, finishing the stage around two minutes behind Giulio Ciccone, the day’s winner.
The hard work of Gianluca Brambilla meant that the pink jersey remained within the team, moving on to the shoulders of Bob Jungels, who became the first Luxembourg rider in 57 years to lead the Giro d’Italia.
Until yesterday, only Charly Gaul got to don the maglia rosa in the Corsa Rosa, the last time he managed this feat being in 1959. The similarities don’t stop here, as both Bob and Gaul were 23-year-old in their maiden Giro d’Italia, when they topped the general classification.
At the end of the stage which took the peloton from Campi Bisenzio to Sestola, Jungels had only words of praise for his teammates: “The guys gave 100% today to keep this jersey, and I owe it to them, because without their help and strength it wouldn’t have been possible to still have the maglia rosa this evening.”
“Etixx – Quick-Step is a special team, and you could see that once again today. It’s not often that the rider in the pink jersey works for a teammate and Brambi was fantastic today, so hats off to him.”
Besides the maglia rosa, Jungels also holds the white jersey, for being the best young rider in the race.
“I still can’t believe what has just happened. It’s definitely one of the best moments of my life and a great day not only for me, but also for the team and for Luxembourg,” he said.
“I want to dedicate this pink jersey to the entire team, it’s a dream to have it. I hope to keep it for as long as possible, but it will also depend on our opponents. What I know is that we’ll continue to fight hard at this race.”
“I was put in difficulty by Astana on Pian del Falco and decided to pace myself once I got dropped. I was aware that I could come back on the descent and went full gas there,” said Brambilla.
“After rejoining the pack and finding out that Amador got away, I wanted to stay at the front and sacrifice myself for the team and ride for Bob. The whole team worked really hard for us and gave everything in the past days and I did this for them.”
“I’m a little bit sad not to wear the pink jersey in my home region, but I’m very happy that the maglia rosa is still in the team and seeing Bob in the maglia rosa is a real pleasure”, concluded Brambilla.
A young guy to watch in the future in respect to TdF, as well !