On a fast and hectic 199-kilometre fifteenth stage of the Giro d’Italia from Valdengo to Bergamo, Team Sunweb’s Tom Dumoulin held onto the pink jersey for a sixth consecutive day.
As the days second breakaway went clear, Team Sunweb immediately set up shop at the front of the bunch to maintain control of their advantage. When the catch was made, the team had positioned Dumoulin perfectly to be able to follow through with a select group of general classification favourites through to the finish.
Bob Jungels (Quick-Step Floors) won the stage ahead of Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team) with Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) finishing in third.
Dumoulin finished the day in eighth place and still leads the Giro d’Italia general classification by 2 minutes 41 seconds from Quintana with Pinot 3 minutes 21 seconds behind.
After the stage Dumoulin said: “Today has shown that there aren’t going to be anymore rest days for the GC contenders. I expected today to be a little bit easier but it was a really fast and hectic stage. The breakaway went late and there were lots of attacks in the final. The team stayed calm throughout everything and we were there when we needed to be so it was a good day.”
Team Sunweb coach Aike Visbeek added: “Today was a tricky, fast stage. The speeds averaged 50kph in the first two hours so it was really crazy. The team looked after pink really well and controlled things well on the climbs along with Orica. It was once again great team work and I am proud of the teams efforts today.”
