Soudal Quick-Step’s 23-year-old gained a massive six minutes in the standings.

Ilan Van Wilder was one of the 30-odd riders to book a place in the largest breakaway seen in a race this season, which formed on the roads of Piedmont, the region hosting stage 12 of the race, from Bra to Rivoli.

As expected in such situations, there wasn’t a real concord in the group, but even in these conditions they managed to open a maximum gap of nine minutes over a peloton whose mind was more on Friday’s gruelling stage in the mountains. It came as no surprise that the group fragmented long before the day’s only classified climb, four riders moving clear and putting three minutes into their former companions. Ilan tried to go after them, but his numerous attempts were countered by his opponents.

The cat and mouse game continued on Colle Braida, where the Belgian tried again to get a gap, only for the result to be the same. But Ilan didn’t give up and showed his strength in the sprint, which he won from the group that arrived two minutes behind victor Nico Denz (Bora-hansgrohe), finishing sixth on the stage.

“I had the feeling I was alone today on the road, at one point it was just me against the world. It’s something typical in such a big breakaway. I tried to attack many times, but the others reacted each time. In the end, I won that sprint from pure frustration and I think it was the best possible result. I will now try to recover and hopefully will continue my upward trajectory here”, said Ilan, who is now 16th overall, just three minutes from the top 10.

 

Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images

Race details

1 Nico Denz
BORA - hansgrohe
4:18:11
2 Toms Skujiņš
Trek - Segafredo
0:00
3 Sebastian Berwick
Israel - Premier Tech
0:03
4 Alessandro Tonelli
Green Project-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè
0:58
5 Marco Frigo
Israel - Premier Tech
2:07
6 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal - Quick Step
2:20
7 Alberto Bettiol
EF Education-EasyPost
2:20
8 Christian Scaroni
Astana Qazaqstan Team
2:20
9 Michel Hessmann
Jumbo-Visma
2:20
10 Alex Baudin
AG2R Citroën Team
2:20
67 Pieter Serry
Soudal - Quick Step
12:11
88 Davide Ballerini
Soudal - Quick Step
20:25
1 Geraint Thomas
INEOS Grenadiers
49:02:05
2 Primož Roglič
Jumbo-Visma
0:02
3 João Almeida
UAE Team Emirates
0:22
4 Andreas Leknessund
Team DSM
0:35
5 Damiano Caruso
Bahrain - Victorious
1:28
6 Lennard Kämna
BORA - hansgrohe
1:52
7 Eddie Dunbar
Team Jayco AlUla
2:32
8 Thymen Arensman
INEOS Grenadiers
2:32
9 Laurens De Plus
INEOS Grenadiers
2:36
10 Aurélien Paret-Peintre
AG2R Citroën Team
2:48
16 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal - Quick Step
6:08
77 Pieter Serry
Soudal - Quick Step
1:19:07
108 Davide Ballerini
Soudal - Quick Step
1:55:14
1 Jonathan Milan
Bahrain - Victorious
164 pt
2 Mads Pedersen
Trek - Segafredo
140 pt
3 Pascal Ackermann
UAE Team Emirates
88 pt
4 Michael Matthews
Team Jayco AlUla
68 pt
5 Derek Gee
Israel - Premier Tech
64 pt
6 Magnus Cort Nielsen
EF Education-EasyPost
56 pt
7 Toms Skujiņš
Trek - Segafredo
51 pt
8 Mark Cavendish
Astana Qazaqstan Team
51 pt
9 Vincenzo Albanese
EOLO-Kometa
44 pt
10 Davide Bais
EOLO-Kometa
39 pt
38 Davide Ballerini
Soudal - Quick Step
11 pt
53 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal - Quick Step
5 pt
1 Davide Bais
EOLO-Kometa
104 pt
2 Thibaut Pinot
Groupama - FDJ
50 pt
3 Karel Vacek
Team Corratec - Selle Italia
36 pt
4 Toms Skujiņš
Trek - Segafredo
30 pt
5 Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier Egerzeigzaarhka
Trek - Segafredo
30 pt
6 Ben Healy
EF Education-EasyPost
24 pt
7 Aurélien Paret-Peintre
AG2R Citroën Team
22 pt
8 Alessandro De Marchi
Team Jayco AlUla
22 pt
9 Veljko Stojnić
Team Corratec - Selle Italia
21 pt
10 Francesco Gavazzi
EOLO-Kometa
18 pt
1 João Almeida
UAE Team Emirates
49:02:27
2 Andreas Leknessund
Team DSM
0:13
3 Thymen Arensman
INEOS Grenadiers
2:10
4 Santiago Buitrago Sánchez
Bahrain - Victorious
4:18
5 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal - Quick Step
5:46
6 Einer Augusto Rubio Reyes
Movistar Team
10:49
7 Michel Hessmann
Jumbo-Visma
11:51
8 Jefferson Alexander Cepeda Ortiz
EF Education-EasyPost
13:23
9 Marco Frigo
Israel - Premier Tech
19:17
10 Laurens Huys
Intermarché - Circus - Wanty
20:17
1 Jumbo-Visma 147:02:35
2 INEOS Grenadiers 3:49
3 EF Education-EasyPost 4:07
4 Bahrain - Victorious 5:35
5 UAE Team Emirates 8:35
6 BORA - hansgrohe 11:24
7 Israel - Premier Tech 16:42
8 Astana Qazaqstan Team 30:51
9 Soudal - Quick Step 31:34
10 Groupama - FDJ 36:13

Our road wolves

Related products

Related items

Ballerini scores his first Giro d’Italia top 10

Ballerini scores his first Giro d’Italia top 10

17/05/2023 - Race report
Link