2018 Giro d'Italia Stage 7 Results & Recap
Stage 7 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
Sam Bennett speeds to his first Giro d’Italia victory\nBy Stas Uittenbogaard
At the start of the first sprint stage in Italy, the question on everyone’s lips was: can anyone beat Elia Viviani? It turns out, the answer to that question is “yes”, as Bora-Hansgrohe’s Sam Bennett outsprints the stage favourite in the very last meter of the stage.
The stage started with a break that moved out quickly, a quartet of Markel Irizar of Trek-Segafredo, Davide Ballerini and Fausto Masnada of Androni – Sidermec and Tony Martin of Katusha Alpecin. The sprinters’ teams decided against letting a break including the renowned time-trialist go, and after it was caught, a new break quickly formed including two riders from the original break. Ballerini and Irizar were joined by Katusha’s Maxim Belkov, and allowed to move several minutes up the road.
At the first intermediate sprint, the peloton had neared the break to a minutes distance, but stepped on the brakes to avoid catching up. Ballerini and Belkov divided the intermediate sprints amongst them. At 16 kilometres to go, the trio was finally caught and the preparation for the sprint began. Team Bahrain Merida’s Niccolò Bonifazio suffered a mechanical, seemingly putting him out of contention for the sprint, but he managed to return to the front thanks to a quick wheel change. Katusha Alpecin tried to derail sprint preparations with several attacks over the next six kilometres, but as the pack exited the last of three tunnels at 5 kilometres to go, the sprint finish was inevitable.
Team LottoNL-Jumbo was eager to take up the lead of the peloton through the streets of Praia a Mare. With 1km to go, their sprinter Danny van Poppel seemed in direct contention to EF Education First Drapac’s Sacha Modolo, as Elia Viviani looked to be too far behind in the peloton. In a colossal effort aided by teammates however, Viviani overtook the field of challengers. At this point Bennett, who had been sitting in Viviani’s wheel all the while, launched his final kick to beat Viviani to the line.
This is what Bennett had to say after the finish: “I feel relieved with this first Grand Tour victory. I've been so close so many times in the Giro. With so many fast sprinters here, timing was the key and also taking Viviani's wheel. It's not easy to beat him, he really knows what he’s doing! I had to wait for my time to come, at one point I thought it would never come. I want to thank the whole team and everybody that brought me to this point. I had to freewheel for a moment, as I knew it was too early, and when the time came I just took it.”
Yesterday, Bennett’s main lead-out man Selig did not start the stage, prompting today’s change of tactics. Bennett previously finished third on both sprint stage in Israel. Behind Viviani, Bonifazio completes the podium. Despite losing out on the stage win, Elia Viviani keeps a comfortable lead in the sprint classification. There have been no changes to the general classification today, as GC contenders sat safely in the pack after yesterday’s climb. The race leader Simon Yates said: “It was a good first day in Maglia Rosa, relaxed at the start. A good breakaway went very fast. For us as a team it was perfect. A bit stressful at the final as always but ok. Tomorrow if I have the legs I might try something. I still need to get some time on Tom Dumoulin and some other guys who are better time trialists than me.”\n
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