Ewan sprints to second stage victory in Termoli, Groenewegen fails | Giro d’Italia

The seventh stage started with Attila Valter, the first Hungarian to wear the Giro leader’s jersey. Directly from the start, three riders started: Simon Pellaud (Androni-Giocatolli), Mark Christian (EOLO-Kometa) and Umberto Marengo (Bardiani-CSF). By then it was already clear that they would be riding the front all day long, with the peloton making no effort to recapture the three leaders. After traveling 164 kilometers in the attack, all three were seized again.

In the meantime, nothing has happened at all in the peloton. Peter Sagan collected points in the first intermediate sprint, but otherwise we had to wait for the preparation of the sprint and the last two kilometers. In this one, a steep wall of 200 meters with an average slope of 12 percent had to be climbed. It was predicted in advance to be too heavy for real race printers, but hardly anything happened.

As a result, it “just” turned out to be a sprint. Fernando Gaviria hoped to surprise the rest with a long sprint, but Ewan was there and passed the Colombian in time. Davide Cimolai and Tim Merlier couldn’t get off the Australian’s wheel, so Ewan was allowed to make the winning gesture for the second time.

Groenewegen was well ahead of the last ten kilometers by his team-mates Edoardo Affini, Jos van Emden and David Dekker, but in the final kilometers he found himself alone. Groenewegen came away too far from behind and finished “only” in seventh place, although he has not played in the past nine months due to a suspension and is therefore missing the pace of. the competition.

Valtter’s leadership position has not been endangered. A difficult stage with two climbs awaits him on Saturday. In the standings, he defends an eleven second lead over Remco Evenepoel.