2018 Giro d'Italia Stage 10 Results & Recap
Stage 10 of the 2018 Giro d'Italia is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
By Stas Uittenbogaard
The trickiest days in a grand tour are often those following the rest day. What could have been an easy prey for the break turned into a full battle between teams as Esteban Chaves, second overall and teammate of race leader Simon Yates, was dropped on the first climb of the day and competitors banded together to prevent his return. Team Bahrain Merida’s Matej Mohoric put in a late attack at Annifo and held on to win the longest stage of the 2018 Giro d’Italia in front of fellow attacker Nico Denz of Ag2r-La Mondiale.
With climbing starting from kilometre zero and a hard first third of the stage, an explosive first hour of racing was expected, but few could have expected what happened. The first climb of the day was the Fonte della Creta, scene of a deadly avalanche in January 2017. The Giro ascended the climb in remembrance of the tragedy, as local rider Gulia Ciccone (Bardiani CSF) explained on yesterday´s rest day: "For me, riding tomorrow on this climb will be even more important than the arrival at Gran Sasso yesterday. I haven't been back at this road since the tragedy. I remembered a fountain nearby where I often stopped to refresh myself. Today I saw that it had gone. Tomorrow I will work hard on this climb to honor the victims." The young Italian kept his promise, as he was the first to crest this summit, and the next, as part of the initial 17 man break away.
The break was short-lived however. As news reached the peloton that Esteban Chaves had been dropped on the Fonte della Creta, general classification contenders put their team to the work to increase the gap the Colombian, who sat second overall at the start of the stage. It was the strength of teams Sky and Sunweb that increased the initial gap to two minutes, at which point other teams joined in. Eventually, the grupetto with Elia Viviani´s Quickstep team caught up with the Chaves group, at which point the race turned into a battle between the engines of Mitchelton Scott and Quickstep in the chase group and Sunweb, Sky, UAE and Lotto-NL Jumbo on the front. At 125 kilometre to go, it looked as if the alliance between the blue and ciclamino jersey would catch up with the front, but as the gap increased again Quickstep saw their chance at stage victory evaporate. Mitchelton Scott was now having to chase alone, an impossible task which the team had to give up at 95 kilometres to go. At the finish line, the Colombian had to cede twenty-five minutes to the peloton.
Thanks to this dramatic course of the race, the rest of the general classification contenders, including Chaves’ teammate and Maglia Rosa Simon Yates, found themselves contending for bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint in Sarnano. Yates outsprinted Groupama-FDJ’s Thibaut Pinot, extending his lead over Dumoulin by three seconds while the French Pinot moves into third place overall. Davide Ballerini, the Androni-Sidermec rider who is in contention for the intermediate sprint classification was third, right before his teammate Marco Frapporti launched a solo attack that would last from 80km until 30km to go, where he was caught by another late attack from the peloton. Matej Mohoric and Davide Villella (Astana) attacked from the peloton not far from the day’s final categorized climb and joined with the solo leader right before the top. Several others attempted to bridge, with only AG2R-La Mondiale rider Nico Denz succeeding. With less than 15 kilometer to go, Mohoric utilized his superior descending skills to drop Villella.
At the finish line, it looked as if the Denz had the tactical advantage by forcing his Slovenian rival to lead out the sprint, but in the end the German classics rider could not overpower Mohoric, who took his second grand tour stage victory after taking his first in the 2017 Vuelta d’Espagna. This is what the Slovenian, who is still only 23 years old despite riding on world tour squads since 2013, said after the finish: “It's amazing. I'm super happy for myself but, foremost, for my team Bahrain-Merida. They let me try and win a stage, although we're racing for Domenico Pozzovivo on GC. I was not confident to beat Nico Denz. That's why I tried to attack him before. When I saw that he was not passing, I gave it my all.”
Despite Tom Dumoulin and Richard Carapaz needing a bike change on the descents of the Annifo, all GC candidates bar Chaves made it to the finish in Gualdo Tadino in the same time. The Maglia Rosa remains on Simon Yates’ shoulders, and this is what he had to say about today: “Chaves just had a bad moment on the first climb of the day. Straight after the rest day, you don't know how the body responds. I'm very disappointed for him because he's worked hard for this Giro. I was going to go for the bonus sprint because I need to gain time on Tom Dumoulin but, when I saw Thibaut Pinot getting a lead out, I went past him. I need as many seconds as I can get so maybe I need to go for more bonus seconds.” Another victim of the Fonte della Creta, Rafael Valls (Movistar) had to abandon early in the stage after a fall on the climb. Tomorrow is a shorter stage with a punchy finish that should suit the race leader, so do tune in to see who can capitalize at Osimo in stage eleven.\n
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