After the first rest day of the Giro d’Italia, the riders had to take on a short and flat stage of 145 km. The tenth stage from Ravenna to Modena at the edge of the Po valley, offered no topographical difficulties and with a 2km long straight and completely flat final stretch the parcours offered up a firework for the sprinters. Right from the start two riders escaped and quickly carved out an advantage of 4 minutes over the field. The peloton however did not allow the elastic to stretch too far and the lead of 4 minutes shrank quickly.
BORA – hansgrohe’s Cesare Benedetti came to the front of the field to make the tempo and the advantage of the leading duo reduced to around 2 minutes by the second half of the stage. At the intermediate sprint with 45 km to the finish, Pascal Ackermann took additional bonus points in the sprint classification. With 30 km to go, the field caught up with the leading escapees and the peloton rolled together towards Modena. The sprinter teams and a few teams of the general classification contenders then moved up to the front.
In the final phase, Lotto – Soudal took the lead while BORA – hansgrohe attempted to position Pascal for the final sprint. After F. Ventoso attacked with 1500m to go, a crash occurred back in the field around 500m later. Pascal hit the deck and sustained several abrasions and contusions but was able to complete the stage. A group of 20 remaining riders, including Rudi Selig, sprinted towards the finish line, which A. Démare crossed first ahead of E. Viviani. Rudi managed to take a strong third place while Pascal defended his points jersey.
Result
01 A. Démare 3:36:07
02 E. Viviani +0:00
03 R. Selig +0:00
04 C. Ewan +0:00
