The leader’s jersey remains on the Swiss’s shoulders with one stage to go.

Mauro Schmid showcased again his remarkable consistency, racking up a third runner-up spot in four days of racing at the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali after another strong ride on the hardest day of the week, which took in seven climbs for more than 2500 vertical meters.

A numerous group animated the day, opening up a gap of three minutes on the peloton where Soudal Quick-Step made sure of setting a steady tempo that didn’t allow the move to become dangerous. The likes of James Knox and Stan Van Tricht buried themselves for Schmid – who remained out of the wind until the penultimate hill – bringing back the escapees one by one.

An injection of pace followed by a series of sharp attacks with 15 kilometers to go led to a strong chasing group being formed behind lone leader Alexis Guerin (Bingoal). Mauro Schmid showed there is a reason why he is wearing the leader’s jersey, responding with ease and joining this move that came very close to bringing back Guerin, who in the end made it for a mere three seconds.

Second on the stage meant more valuable bonifications for our rider, who enters the final day ITT with a margin of 14 seconds over James Shaw (EF Education-EasyPost). A strong time trialist – gold medalist in the discipline with the mixed team relay at last year’s Worlds – Schmid will look to put in another solid ride and seal what would be the second GC success of his career.

“The whole team did a great job the whole day. We had a tough climb in the beginning and an 18-ma breakaway, so we had to chase full gas as nobody helped. In the end I just had to make sure that I didn’t lose too much time. I think I had quite good legs, I wanted to try to win the stage but it was a bit risky as I had two EF guys with me. If I pulled too hard and I lost time it could have been difficult for the last stage, so I just focused instead on taking the bonus seconds. Saturday’s time trial is flat, quite technical, but nothing too crazy, so I can be confident about my chances”, Schmid explained after the stage.

 

Photo credit: ©Sirotti

Race details

1 Alexis Guerin
Bingoal WB
4:05:29
2 Mauro Schmid
Soudal - Quick Step
0:03
3 James Shaw
EF Education-EasyPost
0:03
4 Johannes Staune-Mittet
Jumbo-Visma
0:03
5 Domenico Pozzovivo
Israel - Premier Tech
0:03
6 Ben Healy
EF Education-EasyPost
0:03
7 Felix Engelhardt
Team Jayco AlUla
0:17
8 Mark Stewart
Bolton Equities Black Spoke
0:17
9 Davide Gabburo
Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè
0:17
10 Natnael Tesfatsion
Trek - Segafredo
0:17
18 James Knox
Soudal - Quick Step
0:17
26 William Junior Lecerf
Soudal - Quick Step
1:13
46 Rémi Cavagna
Soudal - Quick Step
8:45
60 Martin Svrček
Soudal - Quick Step
15:00
65 Josef Černý
Soudal - Quick Step
15:00
DNF Stan Van Tricht
Soudal - Quick Step
-04:05:29
1 Mauro Schmid
Soudal - Quick Step
15:57:02
2 James Shaw
EF Education-EasyPost
0:14
3 Walter Calzoni
Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team
0:28
4 Gianluca Brambilla
Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team
0:35
5 Domenico Pozzovivo
Israel - Premier Tech
0:43
6 Ben Healy
EF Education-EasyPost
0:44
7 Mark Padun
EF Education-EasyPost
0:56
8 Sean Quinn
EF Education-EasyPost
1:17
9 Johannes Staune-Mittet
Jumbo-Visma
1:19
10 Natnael Tesfatsion
Trek - Segafredo
1:30
18 James Knox
Soudal - Quick Step
2:23
38 William Junior Lecerf
Soudal - Quick Step
21:20
40 Rémi Cavagna
Soudal - Quick Step
23:22
58 Martin Svrček
Soudal - Quick Step
41:13
101 Josef Černý
Soudal - Quick Step
1:15:36
1 Mauro Schmid
Soudal - Quick Step
28 pt
2 Ben Healy
EF Education-EasyPost
13 pt
3 Domenico Pozzovivo
Israel - Premier Tech
12 pt
4 James Shaw
EF Education-EasyPost
11 pt
5 Sean Quinn
EF Education-EasyPost
10 pt
6 Rémi Cavagna
Soudal - Quick Step
10 pt
7 Alexis Guerin
Bingoal WB
10 pt
8 Walter Calzoni
Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team
10 pt
9 Mark Padun
EF Education-EasyPost
7 pt
10 Felix Engelhardt
Team Jayco AlUla
7 pt
1 Alexis Guerin
Bingoal WB
28 pt
2 Lennert Teugels
Bingoal WB
24 pt
3 Marco Murgano
Team Corratec
23 pt
4 Jhonatan Restrepo Valencia
GW Shimano-Sidermec
16 pt
5 Ben Healy
EF Education-EasyPost
14 pt
6 Andrea Garosio
EOLO-Kometa
12 pt
7 Florian Lipowitz
BORA - hansgrohe
10 pt
8 Alessandro Fancellu
EOLO-Kometa
10 pt
9 Veljko Stojnić
Team Corratec
8 pt
10 Luca Covili
Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè
8 pt
11 James Knox
Soudal - Quick Step
8 pt
13 Rémi Cavagna
Soudal - Quick Step
5 pt
15 Mauro Schmid
Soudal - Quick Step
4 pt
1 Walter Calzoni
Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team
15:57:30
2 Ben Healy
EF Education-EasyPost
0:16
3 Sean Quinn
EF Education-EasyPost
0:49
4 Johannes Staune-Mittet
Jumbo-Visma
0:51
5 Felix Engelhardt
Team Jayco AlUla
1:05
6 Tijmen Graat
Jumbo-Visma
1:05
7 Leo Hayter
INEOS Grenadiers
1:05
8 Fernando Tercero Lopez
EOLO-Kometa
1:13
9 Davide Piganzoli
EOLO-Kometa
3:45
10 Florian Lipowitz
BORA - hansgrohe
4:48
16 William Junior Lecerf
Soudal - Quick Step
20:52
22 Martin Svrček
Soudal - Quick Step
40:45
1 EF Education-EasyPost 47:52:17
2 Jumbo-Visma 3:22
3 Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè 7:53
4 EOLO-Kometa 10:53
5 Soudal - Quick Step 14:02
6 Israel - Premier Tech 15:54
7 Trek - Segafredo 18:23
8 Bingoal WB 18:27
9 BORA - hansgrohe 33:07
10 Team Jayco AlUla 34:53

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