Sam Bennett finished third in Gualdo Taldino on today’s tenth stage of the Giro d´Italia as Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Merida Pro Cycling Team) took the win. The result meant that Bennett closed the gap on Elia Viviani in the points competition.
Following on from yesterday’s rest day, the peloton faced the longest stage of this year´s Corsa Rosa today. The race took the riders from Penne, a small city in Abruzzo to Gualdo Taldino over 244km, and a last minute change added 5 kilometres to the race profile.
It was a fast start with many attacks right from the start and twelve riders managed to distance themselves from the bunch and gained an advantage of more than two minutes.
After a solo attack by Tony Martin (Katusha-Alpecin) it was all back together with 170 kilometres to go. Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton Scott), who had sat in second place going into the stage was in some difficulty and was dropped from the Maglia Rosa group, and the gap grew to more than ten minutes during the race. Many of the sprinters were also dropped but Sam Bennett was able to hang on in with the reduced peloton.
On the climb to Annifo, Mohoric went clear with Davide Vilella (Astana) in pursuit of leader Marco Frapporti (Androni Giocattoli). They caught and dropped him towards the summit. On the descent, Mohoric was joined by Nico Denz (AG2R La Mondiale) as Vilella was dropped.
The duo stayed clear until the finish with Mohoric outsprinting Denz for his second Grand Tour stage win after a victory in last year’s Vuelta. Bennett meanwhile won the sprint for third, 34″ behind Mohoric.
Sam Bennett – “It was a hard day in the saddle, the pace was high and the attacks were started right from the start. We were able to stay together in the main bunch and our two GC contenders didn’t lose so much time in the overall. We couldn’t close the gap as the two riders went up the road in the finale, therefore I finished third. I also want to thank the guys for their super efforts today. The result may not show it but they rode out of their skin. I would have liked to get the win for their efforts. Tomorrow will be another stage and we will give our best like in the previous days.”
