Despite the stage being decided in a sprint, the 21-year-old was again among the protagonists.
Monday afternoon, the bunch arrived in Foligno – the town where 549 years ago the first book in Italian was printed, Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy” – but the short trek through the Abruzzo region produced no masterpieces, just full gas racing from the off. The profile of the 139km stage 10 was an undulating one, featuring some challenging gradients which were used by some teams to decisively distance the sprinters and deal a blow to their hopes of victory.
But the stage also had a subplot, at the intermediate sprint in Campello sul Clitunno. With the original breakaway overhauled on the last climb, the GC favourites took the spotlight for a few moments, and Remco Evenepoel didn’t miss the rendez-vous. Brought to the front of the field by his Deceuninck – Quick-Step teammates, the Belgian showed amazing power, launching the sprint from 200 meters out and grabbing two bonus seconds.
The stage came down to the expected mass gallop, albeit one where many fast men were absent, and it was Peter Sagan (Bora-hasgrohe) who took the win. Remco concluded in the main group, a couple of seconds down after the peloton was split due to a crash, and he retained his second place in the general classification, where thanks to the bonifications he picked up, sits just 14 seconds behind the overall leader.
Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images
