Soudal Quick-Step’s Frenchman went again on the offensive and raced his heart out on the most draining stage of the race so far.

Julian Alaphilippe braved the tough weather conditions and dazzled again while leaving his mark for the umpteenth time on a Giro d’Italia stage, one that had to be shortened due to the snow, wet roads and low temperatures which forced the organisers to take out the Umbrail Pass and come up with a different start location, in Lasa, instead of Livigno.

When the race got underway a couple of hours later, attacks came in waves, but the first moves were easily reeled in. It was only with 90 kilometers to go that a breakaway formed, when Alaphilippe went clear on the roads of the Sud Tyrol region together with three other riders, including Mirco Maestri (Polti Kometa), the Italian with whom he was on the attack also last week, when he soloed to a memorable victory.

The horrible conditions accompanied the quartet as they headed to Bolzano – the setting of Sandor Marai’s 1940 novel “Casanova in Bolzano” – but the four did a great job and this helped their gap go out to two minutes, despite some fierce chasing from behind. Julian attacked away from his fellow escapees on the 23.3km-long Passo Pinei, in a moment the advantage was down to a minute, but the two-time World Champion somehow managed to add 40 seconds to his buffer, thanks to an incredible effort despite the temperatures continuing to drop.

The embodiment of grinta and panache, Alaphilippe summited the top of the climb with a 20-second gap on a three-man chasing group which eventually linked up with him on the last ascent of the day, Monte Pana. Staying true to his nature, Julian gritted his teeth and took some generous turns at the front before finally dropping back with two kilometers to go. The remaining riders were eventually caught by race leader Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), who went on to take the win, while Jan Hirt arrived less than a minute later and maintained his place in the general classification top ten.

“It was a crazy day, with the route change because of the weather, and the full gas tempo from the start all the way to the finish. The weather didn’t make it easy, but Specialized’s rain tyres have lots of grip in these conditions. I rode on my instinct and I can be happy with the way I gave my best.”

“It was cold today, but I had my Castelli clothing to keep me warm and dry, which helped me stay in the lead so deep into the stage. Towards the end I was tired, but I kept pushing and believing in my chances. I have no regrets as I’ve really enjoyed the stage. The shape is good, the atmosphere is great in the team and the confidence is there, so we will keep trying again in the next stages”, said Julian, who also took to the podium to receive the day’s Intergiro award.

 

Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images

Race details

1 Tadej Pogačar
UAE Team Emirates
2:49:37
2 Giulio Pellizzari
VF Group - Bardiani CSF - Faizanè
0:16
3 Daniel Felipe Martínez Poveda
BORA - hansgrohe
0:16
4 Christian Scaroni
Astana Qazaqstan Team
0:31
5 Antonio Tiberi
Bahrain - Victorious
0:33
6 Thymen Arensman
INEOS Grenadiers
0:38
7 Damiano Caruso
Bahrain - Victorious
0:39
8 Michael Storer
Tudor Pro Cycling Team
0:42
9 Ewen Costiou
0:42
10 Valentin Paret-Peintre
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
0:45
12 Jan Hirt
Soudal Quick-Step
0:46
22 Mauri Vansevenant
Soudal Quick-Step
1:48
29 Julian Alaphilippe
Soudal Quick-Step
3:56
52 Pieter Serry
Soudal Quick-Step
14:49
92 Luke Lamperti
Soudal Quick-Step
19:49
125 Bert Van Lerberghe
Soudal Quick-Step
27:53
130 Tim Merlier
Soudal Quick-Step
27:53
140 Josef Černý
Soudal Quick-Step
29:01
1 Tadej Pogačar
UAE Team Emirates
59:01:09
2 Daniel Felipe Martínez Poveda
BORA - hansgrohe
7:18
3 Geraint Thomas
INEOS Grenadiers
7:40
4 Ben O'Connor
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
8:42
5 Antonio Tiberi
Bahrain - Victorious
10:09
6 Thymen Arensman
INEOS Grenadiers
10:33
7 Romain Bardet
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL
12:18
8 Filippo Zana
Team Jayco AlUla
12:43
9 Einer Rubio Reyes
Movistar Team
13:09
10 Jan Hirt
Soudal Quick-Step
14:07
32 Mauri Vansevenant
Soudal Quick-Step
1:03:45
40 Julian Alaphilippe
Soudal Quick-Step
1:27:57
76 Pieter Serry
Soudal Quick-Step
2:37:21
119 Luke Lamperti
Soudal Quick-Step
3:37:39
137 Bert Van Lerberghe
Soudal Quick-Step
3:58:25
141 Tim Merlier
Soudal Quick-Step
4:04:29
143 Josef Černý
Soudal Quick-Step
4:05:42
1 Jonathan Milan
Lidl - Trek
284 pt
2 Kaden Groves
Alpecin - Deceuninck
175 pt
3 Tadej Pogačar
UAE Team Emirates
99 pt
4 Julian Alaphilippe
Soudal Quick-Step
99 pt
5 Filippo Fiorelli
VF Group - Bardiani CSF - Faizanè
98 pt
6 Tim Merlier
Soudal Quick-Step
93 pt
7 Andrea Pietrobon
Team Polti Kometa
91 pt
8 Jhonatan Narváez Prado
INEOS Grenadiers
63 pt
9 Mirco Maestri
Team Polti Kometa
58 pt
10 Juan Sebastián Molano Benavides
UAE Team Emirates
54 pt
66 Mauri Vansevenant
Soudal Quick-Step
10 pt
89 Jan Hirt
Soudal Quick-Step
2 pt
92 Luke Lamperti
Soudal Quick-Step
2 pt
991 Bert Van Lerberghe
Soudal Quick-Step
-34 pt
1 Tadej Pogačar
UAE Team Emirates
200 pt
2 Christian Scaroni
Astana Qazaqstan Team
86 pt
3 Simon Geschke
Cofidis
78 pt
4 Daniel Felipe Martínez Poveda
BORA - hansgrohe
66 pt
5 Nairo Quintana Rojas
Movistar Team
65 pt
6 Giulio Pellizzari
VF Group - Bardiani CSF - Faizanè
56 pt
7 Valentin Paret-Peintre
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
55 pt
8 Julian Alaphilippe
Soudal Quick-Step
53 pt
9 Romain Bardet
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL
45 pt
10 Georg Steinhauser
EF Education - EasyPost
42 pt
991 Bert Van Lerberghe
Soudal Quick-Step
-2 pt
1 Antonio Tiberi
Bahrain - Victorious
59:11:18
2 Thymen Arensman
INEOS Grenadiers
0:24
3 Filippo Zana
Team Jayco AlUla
2:34
4 Davide Piganzoli
Team Polti Kometa
9:46
5 Alex Baudin
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
16:08
6 Giovanni Aleotti
BORA - hansgrohe
23:18
7 Valentin Paret-Peintre
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
28:32
8 Kevin Vermaerke
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL
53:20
9 Mauri Vansevenant
Soudal Quick-Step
53:36
10 Edoardo Zambanini
Bahrain - Victorious
57:29
42 Luke Lamperti
Soudal Quick-Step
3:27:30
1 Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team 177:47:27
2 INEOS Grenadiers 10:47
3 UAE Team Emirates 34:39
4 Astana Qazaqstan Team 48:58
5 BORA - hansgrohe 52:00
6 Bahrain - Victorious 54:49
7 VF Group - Bardiani CSF - Faizanè 1:09:05
8 Team dsm-firmenich PostNL 1:11:12
9 Movistar Team 1:13:10
10 Soudal Quick-Step 1:32:37

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