Our rider finished fifth atop San Martino di Castrozza, which returned at the race after a ten-year hiatus.
Pieter Serry put in another resolute display and impressive effort at the season’s first Grand Tour, where for the second time he joined the break, after previously featuring in the front on stage six, to San Giovanni Rotondo. The 30-year-old Belgian – who is riding his tenth Grand Tour – jumped from the peloton three kilometers into the stage that travelled from Treviso to San Martino di Castrozza, and joined by eleven other riders, nudged out their advantage to nine minutes by the time they approached the final climb.
The cohesion went up in smoke after two kilometers, leaving just a handful of riders in the lead, including Pieter, who closed down two attacks before putting in several surges of himself and splitting the group furthermore. When Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott) powered clear, same Pieter was the one to bridge across with François Bidard (AG2R) on his wheel, but another attack of the Colombian, with two kilometers to go, saw him get clear and take the win.
Pieter continued to dig deep and push on, ignoring the pain on the hard gradients of the climb, which began to take its toll close to the finish, before eventually concluding the 151km stage in fifth place, recording his best result since 2016 in a Grand Tour stage.
“I attacked right from the start, we worked well together, then, on the long climb to the finish, I put in several accelerations until we remained only three guys at the front. I believed in my chances, so that’s why I tried a couple of times, and gave it my all for the team, but Chaves was stronger while I had some cramps as the climb was too hard for me. Nevertheless, I am satisfied with my performance today and happy with how I felt during the Giro and the amount of work I did for the Wolfpack”, said Pieter, who is two days away from taking his best overall result in a Grand Tour.
Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele/ Getty Images
