At the end of a fast and full-on 10th stage of the Giro d’Italia, Ivan Rovny raced to the best Grand Tour result of his career, taking second place on the tough uphill finish in Sestola. A day of rest brought riders to the start in Campi Bisenzio fresh and ready to ride hard and fast on a tough, mountainous parcours. With Rovny up the road racing to the team’s best result of the race so far, team leader Rafal Majka came over the line in 11th position, finishing with the GC favourites and moving up to seventh on GC.
After a well-deserved rest day, the Giro d’Italia hit the road again with another mountain stage. The race so far had tackled some tough climbs, however today saw the race move into some of the bigger mountains. The 219km route had no fewer than four categorised climbs over its undulating parcours, with the final climb to the finish coming shortly after the first category Pian del Falco.
Starting the day in better weather than the downpours experienced in Sunday’s time trial, riders expected clear skies throughout the day. After a few attacks failed to gain ground in the opening kilometres, the peloton upped the pace and started to see riders dropping off the pace at he back. Groups continued to try to escape, but it wasn’t until 60km that a proper break had formed, after climbing the third category Passa della Collina. In turn, after building up an advantage of 2’30”, a chasing group formed after 75km. While this group failed to get away, another group set out shortly after – this time containing Ivan Rovny – which, after 100km of racing grew to ten riders strong.
After the rest day, the pace was always going to be high, as Sport Director, Tristan Hoffman, explained after the stage. “The race went full gas on the first climb and a big front group formed of about 100 riders. We had all nine guys in the front so the guys were looking good. Jay was feeling a bit unwell but hopefully he managed to get through the stage.”
While the escapees at the front built steadily on their advantage, with 70km of the stage remaining, and with the Pian del Falco the next climb, the original escape group dropped back to the chasing group, making a thirteen-strong group that would be much stronger on the daunting first category climb. In spite of their apparent strength however, the breakaway began to fall apart and with 33km to go, the group had disintegrated entirely, leaving two sets of chasers between a solo break and the Maglia Rosa group.
With 6km to go the gap between the front of the race and the peloton sat at two minutes, and it looked increasingly likely that the stage win was going to come from the breakaway. With the finish looming however, Ivan Rovny went on the attack, escaping the chasing groups and going it alone on the front reducing the gap between himself and Bardiani CSF’s Ciccone who had moved clear on the penultimate climb of the stage. With 3km remaining, the gap between the Russian rider and the leader was just 30 seconds and Ivan was looking strong, climbing well on the third category final climb in the big ring and with the team car behind ready to provide support.
Finishing on his own, 42 seconds after the stage winner, Ivan crossed the line to take a well-deserved second place. Behind, in the chasing peloton, Tinkoff’s leader, Rafal Majka, was looking similarly strong and was holding his own with his GC rivals. Rafal finished with the bunch in eleventh position, which enabled the Polish leader to rise up to seventh in the GC.
Ivan was happy with the result on a tough stage – especially having suffered from sickness after the recent Tour de Romandie. “The stage was really hard today with climbs up and down all day. We got away on the second climb after 30 – 40km and rode out to over 5 minutes. When the group started to attack I was feeling good but not quite enough for the stage. Second is a good result but the win would have been much better. The first week has been OK for me – the first stages were hard as I was a bit sick after Romandie but once the race got to Italy I have been feeling strong and stronger. I’m looking forward to supporting Rafal where I can – he’s riding strong. We will see him in the big mountains.”
Sport Director, Tristan Hoffman, was thrilled with Ivan’s performance today, having gone out early in one of the chasing groups and stayed away much of the day. “Rovny did a great ride today, and it was really nice to see him take his chance. The plan was to get someone in the breakaway and he was the one that made it. His group had to work hard to catch the three riders in front but when they did it was a good group. Then in the final he was there but missed catching one rider on the last climb. It was a very strong ride, and it was not an easy stage. Rovny had the legs but unfortunately one rider was a bit better.”
Rafal’s performance further cemented his role as a GC rider, as Hoffman continued. “Behind the breakaway Rafal stayed with the other GC guys on the climbs. They made good speed at the front and he followed well, moving up one spot overall on GC – still moving in the right direction.”
Tomorrow’s 227km stage sees an almost pan flat parcours for 198km before a fourth category climb less than 20km before the finish in Asolo. While the route may be flat, it’s not without its challenges, with roundabouts, speed bumps and road barriers to contend with in the towns, before the climb at the end of the stage could lead to a late attack. Hoffman’s aim however was to get the team through the coming flat stages safely. “The coming two days are more or less flat, then the mountains come again. We will focus on getting through without any problems before the GC fight starts again on Friday.
Stage Result
1. Giulio Ciccone (ITA) Bardiani CSF 05:44:32
2. Ivan Rovny (RUS) Tinkoff +00:00:42
3. Darwin Atapuma (COL) BMC Racing Team +00:01:20
4. Nathan Brown (USA) Cannondale Pro Cycling +00:01:53
5. Damiano Cunego (ITA) Nippo-Vini Fantini +00:02:04
11. Rafal Majka (POL) Tinkoff +00:02:15
30. Pawel Poljanski (POL) Tinkoff +00:03:08
45. Jesus Hernandez (SPA) Tinkoff +00:04:46
48. Manuele Boaro (ITA) Tinkoff +00:07:09
67. Evgeny Petrov (RUS) Tinkoff +00:13:00
82. Matteo Tosatto (ITA) Tinkoff +00:23:20
84. Pavel Brutt (RUS) Tinkoff +00:23:20
175. Jay McCarthy (AUS) Tinkoff +00:37:35
GC After Stage 10
1. Bob Jungels (LUX) Etixx-Quick Step 40:19:52
2. Andrey Amador (CRC) Movistar Team +00:00:26
3. Alejandro Valverde (SPA) Movistar Team +00:00:50
4. Steven Kruiswijk (NED) Team Lotto NL-Jumbo +00:00:50
5. Vincenzo Nibali (ITA) Astana Pro Team +00:00:52
7. Rafal Majka (POL) Tinkoff +00:01:44
36. Pawel Poljanski (POL) Tinkoff +00:14:53
39. Ivan Rovny (RUS) Tinkoff +00:18:45
43. Manuele Boaro (ITA) Tinkoff +00:27:01
53. Evgeny Petrov (RUS) Tinkoff +00:33:56
65. Jesus Hernandez (SPA) Tinkoff +00:45:44
103. Jay McCarthy (AUS) Tinkoff +01:05:17
105. Pavel Brutt (RUS) Tinkoff +01:05:41
119. Matteo Tosatto (ITA) Tinkoff +01:11:01