Jonathan Milan delighted the home crowd as he won a bunch sprint finish on stage 11 of the Giro d’Italia.
The 207-kilometre course started in hilly terrain at Foiano di Val Fortore and featured a Category 3 climb before a flat run towards Francavilla al Mare as the tour began heading back north.
Thomas Champion (Cofidis) was among the breakaway group with Team Visma-Lease duo Edoardo Affii and Tim van Dijk, but their lead was kept down to around a minute by a sprinter-driven peloton.
Although Andrea Piccolo (EF Education-EasyPost) set off on a solo attack heading into the final 20km, he was soon pulled back in as the teams eyed the expected sprint finish.
Both Tim Merlier and Fernando Gaviria (Movistar) had looked in the mix, but it was the Italian rider Milan of the Lidl-Trek's team who timed his own burst perfectly to take his second stage win of the 2024 tour.
Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) retained the overall lead in the General Classification standings, two minutes and 40 seconds in front of Daniel Martinez (Bora-Hansgrohe).
Geraint Thomas (Ineos-Grenadiers) remains third, the Welshman having collected two bonus seconds from an intermediate sprint which puts him 16 seconds behind Martinez.
Ahead of Wednesday’s start, Cian Uijtdebroeks (Visma-Lease) was forced to abandon the Giro through illness.
Ryan Mullen finished in the peloton in 68th place, and sits in 138th position overall.
Thursday’s flatter stage 12 will run over 193km from Martinsicuro to Fano.
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
