Valentin Paret-Peintre (Decathlon-AG2R) won stage 10 of the Giro d'Italia to the summit finish of Bocca della Selva in the southern Apennines after Tadej Pogačar and UAE Team Emirates squad finally let a breakaway stay away.
Paret-Peintre was part of a 27-rider group that surged clear after a fast start to the 142 km stage and then he chased down lone attacker Jan Tratnik (Visma-Lease a Bike) in the final kilometres of the climb to take his first professional victory.
Romain Bardet (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) was with Paret-Peintre on the climb but was distanced in the final three kilometres and finished 29 seconds behind.
The Pogačar GC group finished more than three minutes down on Bardet and so the Frenchman jumped back up the overall classification to seventh after losing time during the opening stages.
Ben O'Connor led home the GC group but Pogačar was there and controlled his closest rivals once again. He leads Dani Martinez (Bora-Hansgrohe) by 2:40, with Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) third overall at 2:58.
Filippo Zana (Jayco AlUla) and Domenico Pozzovivo (VF Group-Bardiani) were also in the breakaway and moved back up the GC, with Zana also moving close to the best young riders' white jersey.
Bardet is now 4:57 down on Pogacar, Zana is up to ninth at 5:23 and Pozzovivo moved closer to the top ten.
Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) tried to attack the GC group in the final kilometres but then lost four seconds in the sprint to the uphill finish. Cian Uijtdebroeks (Visma-Lease a Bikes) also lost 13 seconds but kept the white jersey. However, he only leads Tiberi by just 12 seconds.
Paret-Peintre's older brother Aurélien won a stage at the 2023 Giro d'Italia not far away in Lago Laceno. The two brothers hugged after the finish line after being in the attack together.
"To be honest, I can't describe what I feel now. It's just amazing," Paret-Peintre said.
"I was there to do a good result on the stage, and why not win it? Now I have a stage win for my first pro win. It's amazing."
"I watched Bardet when I was young, when he finished on the podium at the Tour de France. I dreamt by seeing him on TV and today I battled with him and beat him.
Paret-Peintre had planned his attack carefully.
"I saw on the profile that the last four kilometres were the hardest and so I waited and waited on the last climb until I saw the last three kilometres, then I attacked."
Pogačar jumped on his time trial bike to warm down after the stage and admitted a change in his race tactics. He and his teammates could now enjoy three consecutive flat stages up the Adriatic coast and to Cento, allowing the sprinters to control the racing.
“We let the break go away, so we could ride at our own pace. Other teams worked and then Bahrain Victorious worked in the final, it was perfect for us,” he told Italian television before pulling on the maglia rosa.
“I know we’ve got to be patient in a Grand Tour, it’s about 21 days of racing, so we’ve got to stay focused on the big stages and go day by day. I think there will be attacks from everybody and it’ll be hard, so we have to be ready and race like we raced today.”
How it unfolded
The riders posed for photographs under blue skies in the ruins of Pompei before the start of the 142 km stage but there was tension in the air for the mountain finish on the Bocca della Selva climb, 1,392m above Cusano Mutri, deep in the Campania Apennines.
Stage 9 winner Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) was a surprise non-starter, as were Ethan Vernon (Israel-Premier Tech), Max Kanter (Astana Qazaqstan) and Marius Mayrhofer (Tudor).
The opening 50km were on flat roads inland and the speed was high as Simon Clarke (Israel Premier Tech), Quentin Hermans (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Alessandro De Marchi (Jayco AlUla) formed the first serious attack. They got a 30-second gap, even if Hermans was not fully committed, while other riders tried and failed to go across to them and the average speed was constantly above 50 km/h.
With 100km to go, Filippo Ganna, Attila Valter and others formed a new chase group but they were reeled in. Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) won the six points up for grabs after the trio at the in Arpaia but he remains 50 points behind Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek).
UAE Team Emirates tried to take control of the peloton on a steep uncategorised climb but more attacks came quickly. 24 riders surged away on the approach to the Camposauro climb to soon cross to the trio up front, with 63 km to race.
UAE Team Emirates checked who was in the move and then let it go. Stage 10 finally was a day that Pogačar and UAE Team Emirates let other riders have some fun. The Slovenian is no cannibal after all.
The riders in the attack were Tobias Foss (Ineos Grenadiers), Nicola Conci (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Simone Velasco (Astana Qazaqstan), Maximilian Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe), Simon Geschke (Cofidis) Aurélien and Valentin Paret-Peintre (Decathlon-AG2R), Esteban Chaves (EF Education-EasyPost), Enzo Paleni (Groupama-FDJ), Simon Clarke and Marco Frigo (Israel-Premier Tech), Andrea Bagioli and Juan Pedro Lopez (Lidl-Trek), Will Barta (Movistar), Julian Alaphiliipe and Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal Quick Step), Romain Bardet, Chris Hamilton and Kevin Vermaerke (DSM-Firmenich PostNL), Alessandro De Marchi and Filippo Zana (Jayco-AlUla), Mattia Bais (Polti-Kometa), Jan Tratnik (Visma-Lease a Bike), Domenico Pozzovivo, Luca Covili and Filippo Fiorelli ( VF Group-Bardiani) and Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious)
Several teams clearly had a plan to move up their riders on the GC, with Zana and Bardet only seven minutes down on Pogačar and Pozzovivo at 9:23. Their teammates began to work hard to gain as much time on the peloton as possible.
Simon Geschke (Cofidis) won the sprint to the summit of the Camposauro climb as Molano and his leadout man Oliveira did the early work for Pogačar. The gap to the attackers soon went out to 4:00, creating a race in the race, for the stage victory and to gain time and move up the GC.
Alaphilippe has attacked on several stages and was in the 27-rider move. However, he suddenly visited the race doctor’s car for treatment and then was distanced as the road climbed once again, through the vineyards of Campania. Several riders, including Clarke and De Marchi, were distanced.
Fiorelli attacked from the lead group to win the Intergiro sprint with 38 km to go but the stage suddenly turned once again, with Tratnink launching a power attack to try to win alone.
Bardet, Bagioli, Paret-Peintre and Frigo soon started to chase him on the valley roads below the climb to the finish, exposing who had the legs and ambitions for the mountain finish.
Tratnik opened a 1:30 gap and Bardet took two bonus seconds as they rode through Cusano Mutri. The peloton was timed at 5:00 at the start of the climb, with Ineos Grenadiers calling back Foss from the attack and setting a high pace to try to limit Bardet’s time gain. Bahrain Victorious and Bora-Hansgrohe also helped the chase as Pogačar and his teammates sat happily on the wheels.
Tratnink pushed on and so Bardet and Paret-Peintre realised they had to up their chase. With 10km to go the gap was down to 45 seconds, with the remainder of the attack at 1:45 and the peloton at 5:00.
Mid-way up the climb, the road levelled, allowing Tratnik to go into a time trial tuck in an attempt to extend his gap on Bardet and Paret-Peintre. With 5km to go his lead was down to 40 seconds and the two French riders could see him on the exposed, straight roads. Bagioli was also not far behind after refusing to give up the chase.
Paret-Peintre cruelly attacked Bardet with three kilometres to go and quickly crossed to Tratnik. He eased off a moment to recover briefly and then surged away to the stage victory.
Bardet also caught and passed Tratnik but he couldn’t catch Paret-Peintre, the 23-year-old defeating the rider he admired as a boy.
Bahrain Victorious took up the chase in the GC group and Tiberi even tried a couple of surges. However, he learnt a lesson when O’Connor, Thomas and Pogačar surged to the line and gained four seconds.
With Pogačar in control of the maglia rosa, even four seconds could make a difference in the fight for the podium places.
Results
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