Team Giant-Shimano proved their strength in today's seventh stage of the Giro d'Italia when the team had the front for most of the final three kilometres. In the end, Bert De Backer delivered Luka Mezgec perfectly but the Slovenian had to be content with third.
Team Giant-Shimano’s Slovenia sprinter, Luka Mezgec has sprinter to his first podium spot of the Giro d’Italia, taking third on the seventh stage from Frosinone to Foligno.
It was the first real opportunity for Mezgec to have a shot at the victory after having a mechanical problem at the end of the last sprint stage, and after a very long lead-out from Bert De Backer he pulled out of the wheels and gave it his all, just being passed in the final 100m.
For the first day of this three-week race the peloton could spend the majority of the day without their rain capes over their backs. From the start the weather looked more promising than the past days and this was a welcome relief for the riders especially after a large number of the peloton hit the deck yesterday.
All the Team Giant-Shimano riders that came to grief yesterday were back on the start line with only cuts and bruises to show. The pace early on was high with many teams trying to get in the break and eventually it was a group of five riders who pulled clear to spend the majority of the 211km stage out front.
Their advantage grew to over nine minutes but with this being the last opportunity for a few days for the sprinters to have a go the bunch were not letting them get too far ahead. The gap gradually fell but it wasn’t without a hard chase behind, and with 10km to go and the race at full speed behind the gap was just 1’17″ and falling.
Tom Stamsnijder and Simon Geschke did a great job in helping bring the gap down and together with the other sprinters teams they brought the race back together with six kilometres to go.
From here in it was full gas to the line and the Team Giant-Shimano lead-out was to the fore, piloting Mezgec through to the finish in a perfect position. Bert De Backer was the final man before him and Bert did a huge turn in the final kilometre to string out the peloton and bring Mezgec to 200m to go where he pulled up the inside and buried it to the line. Unfortunately on the day he did not quite have the speed to take the win, with Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) coming through fastest to take his second stage of the race.
Team Giant-Shimano coach, Marc Reef said after the stage: “At the end the preparation was perfect for the finish and everyone timed their moves to perfection. When it came to Bert’s turn he was able to do such a big pull because he was fresh and hadn’t been in the wind all day. It was an impressive turn on the front to string the bunch out for so long and he dropped Luka of perfectly but unfortunately he didn’t quite have the speed today.
“The day started off pretty hard with climb for over 20km from the start. Five riders pulled away here and we started to chase from there onwards. Together with some of the other teams we controlled the gap and started to bring it back but it went out again on the final climb of the day and things got a bit nervous here so Tom [Stamsnijder] joined the pursuit and helped to bring it back.
“Tomorrow will be a much different day with a hard finish and we will see what we can do with Georg [Preidler] and Tobias [Ludvigsson].”
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