A feat worthy of its palmares: Julian Alaphilippe puts his signature on the twelfth stage of Tour of Italy providing a spectacle on the walls of the Marche region. In his first participation in the Corsa Rosa, the Frenchman from Soudal-Quick Step wanted to leave his mark and he did so in the stage with a profile most similar to the classics that have seen him dominate in recent years. Active from the first climb of the day, the two-time world champion took off together with Mirco Masters (the hug between the two at the end of the race was beautiful, with the Frenchman looking for the Emilian to thank him for the adventure they carried out together) several kilometers from the finish line and, going to break away from him on the last very hard wall after a good ride at two, he went on to seize the first, well-deserved, success at the Giro, the one he needed to close the circle after those achieved at the Tour and the Vuelta.
THE STAGE. As has already happened other times in this Giro, I start on my back in a group with sprints, counter sprints and lots of men eager to break away. The most concrete attempts are those of Trentin, Paleni (Groupama) e van Sintmaartensdijk (Intermarchè) before and of Related (Visma | Lease a Bike), Clarke (Israel Premier Tech), Hepburn (Jayco Alula) and Masters (Polti-Kometa) then. This last action manages to approach the first roughness of the day head on AlaphilippeSupported by Narvaez, Scaroni, Benjamin Thomas And Costiou, gives another rush going to get the men in command. Behind them though Pelayo Sanchez, Hermans, Velasco, Fernandez, Valgren, Calmejane, Smith, Lopez, Vermaerke And Trentin they come back and strengthen the attack which, towards Recanati, becomes even more numerous when 21 men (who had previously escaped from the platoon) manage to tag along. Among them the profiles of Ganna, Quintana, Pithie, Valgren, Narvaez and of men just outside the top 10 of the general as Hirt (11th), Pozzovivo (14th), Lopez (16th) e Piganzoli (17th). From them, taking advantage of the lack of unity of purpose, Maestri and Alaphilippe escape and, in the space of a few kilometres, by persisting with conviction, gain 2’30” from the other escapees. At this point the Italian time trial champion gets to work but his action does not calm the anarchy among the pursuers from which, towards San Paterniano, they take off. Scaroni And Costiou. However, the latter was stopped by a mechanical problem and the rider from Brescia was caught by 8 elements (Narvaez, Hermans, Thomas, Aurelien Paret-Peintre, Valgren, Smith, Clarke, Trentin, Leemreize) together with whom he immediately committed himself to making the pursuit of the leading pair more consistent. Behind them, the other 24 (lacking the moment to follow the eight) lose ground and gradually, despite being able to count on greater strength, see the lead of the race move away. After very agitated moments, the current situation crystallizes and for several kilometres, although there is no lack of terrain to make a difference, there is no change of any kind. In front, in fact, with great stubbornness and superlative legs, Maestri and Alaphilippe always maintain the advantage between one minute and one minute and 45 seconds, while behind, once they understand the impossibility of catching up with the men in the lead, the 24 (including Hirt , on the virtual podium for a long time) lose conviction and end up being picked up by the big group. Here, at a certain point, the Bahrain-Victorious tries to surprise (without succeeding) with a team forcing the other rivals for the general, while in front the flat and downhill stretch is a friend of the pursuers who at the foot of the final climb of Monte Giove arrive with a 45″ delay from the lead. On the last issues of the day, however, Alaphilippe he takes off solo, leaving behind a monumental Masters and, in this way, brilliantly rejects any possible attempt to comeback from behind. Hermans And Narvaez (then 3rd and 2nd on arrival) in fact separate the company but are unable to get under 35″ behind the two-time world champion who, thus, 346 days after his last triumph, returns to Fano to raise his arms to sky imposing itself with just over half a minute on the chasing couple. In 4th and 5th place of the day, at 43″, they finish instead Valgren And Scaroni, also excellent interpreters of a stage experienced at a very high pace from the first to the last kilometer which, in the end, produced no changes in the general classification. Concluding all together 5’24” behind the winner, in fact, the big names maintained their positions, thus leaving the entire stage to the brave ones of the day.
ORDER OF ARRIVAL
1 ALAPHILIPPE Julian Soudal Quick-Step 04:07:44
2 NARVAEZ Jhonnatan INEOS Grenadiers + 31
3 HERMANS Quinten Alpecin-Deceuninck + 32
4 VALGREN Michael EF Education-EasyPost + 43
5 SCARONI Cristian Astana Qazaqstan Team + 43
6 TRENTIN Matteo Tudor Pro Cycling Team + 01:30
7 CLARKE Simon Israel-Premier Tech + 01:30
8 LEEMREIZE Gijs Team dsm-firmenich PostNL + 01:30
9 MASTERS Mirco Team Polti Kometa + 01:30
10 THOMAS Benjamin Cofidis + 01:30
GENERAL RANKING
1 POGACAR Tadej UAE Team Emirates 45:22:35
2 MARTINEZ Daniel BORA-hansgrohe + 02:40
3 THOMAS Geraint INEOS Grenadiers + 02:56
4 O’CONNOR Ben Decathlon AG2R The World Team + 03:39
5 TIBERI Antonio Bahrain Victorious + 04:27
6 BARDET Romain Team dsm-firmenich PostNL + 04:57
7 LUCKY Lorenzo Astana Qazaqstan Team + 05:19
8 ZANA Filippo Team Jayco-AlUla + 05:23
9 RUBIO Einer Movistar Team + 05:28
10 ARENSMAN Thymen INEOS Grenadiers + 05:52
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