A 45-kilometre solo break netted Simon Carr (EF Education-EasyPost) the hardest mountain stage of the 2024 Tour of the Alps, while a crash-marred but ferocious GC battle saw Juan Pedro López (Lidl-Trek) stubbornly cling on to the overall lead.
Carr took off alone when he sensed his chance of victory, dropping fellow breakaway survivor Sergio Higuita on the rugged, poorly surfaced cat 1 Passo Vetriola climb. The British rider stayed away for the second Tour of the Alps stage victory of his career by nearly two minutes.
Chris Harper of Jayco-AIUIa crashed on the high-speed descent off the second and last climb of the day, with the Australian forced to abandon the race. Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) also crashed in the same spot as Harper, but was able to continue.
On the flatter run-in, overall contender Valentin Paret-Peintre (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) launched an all-out attack with some 15 kilometres to go, obliging an isolated López to chase him down in person.
Yet more challenges materialised on the finale in a seven-rider GC group, with Michael Storer (Tudor ProCycling) and O’Connor snatching a few seconds in the end.
López’s rivals largely neutralised each other, allowing the Spaniard to stay in control of the race with just one day of mountain racing remaining.
“Today was pretty special, but also because the first few days were so hard,” Carr said.
“I came here with legitimate GC ambitions. Then I came here and I really struggled with allergies, but the team and Juanma Garate, my directeur sportif were saying I should still have confidence but those things can go just as quickly as they come. There was a bit of rain yesterday, so I felt myself again today and I’m really happy with the result.”
Carr was not confident about winning from such a long break.
“Not really to be honest,” he said. “The gap went down to just under a minute at one point but the gap went out on the final climb so I felt a little more confident. But I was running on fumes a bit by that point, so I had to get over that and then on the final downhill I could take it a bit easy.”
How it unfolded
An early move by 2023 Tour of the Alps runner-up Hugh Carthy (EF Education-Easy Post) and teammate Carr kick-started the mountain stage and meant the 141 km stage was going to be an intense day of racing.
They were soon joined by Colombian allrounder Higuita (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Davide Piganzoli (Polti-Kometa). Then the addition of another seven riders: Ineos Grenadiers’ Oscar Rodriguez, Movistar’s Gregor Muhlberger, Lucas Hamilton (Jayco-AIUIa), Mikel Bizkarra (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Mattia Bais (Polti-Kometa) and Luca Covili (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè) and Gijs Leemreize (Team dsm-firmenich-PostNL) nearly tripled the number of participants in the early break.
As the best-placed GC rider, Piganzoli’s two-minute time-gap on race leader Juanpe López (Lidl-Trek) meant the Italian was a genuine threat and Lidl-Trek duly kept things under control for the first two hours of racing.
The break’s lead all but disintegrated on the Category 1 Passo del Compet, after Simon Carr and Higuita hacked their way clear on the slopes.
They clearly still had some fuel left in the tank and having barrelled off the Passo del Compet, they tackled the nine-kilometre Passo del Vetriolo, with a solid 1:20 advantage on their previous companions in the break and over two minutes on the bunch.
Then as soon as they hit the lower slopes of the roughly surfaced narrow ascent, with some 45 kilometres to go, Carr took off alone, with Higuita able to follow at a distance, but seemingly struggling to close the gap.
In the peloton, Decathlon-AG2R’s pronounced acceleration early on the Vetriolo left Tobias Foss (Ineos Grenadiers) flailing and the rider who took over the race lead from the Norwegian on Wednesday’s stage, Juanpe López, isolated from his Lidl-Trek teammates.
More attacks came but the Spaniard responded to everything that his rivals threw at him, most notably by O’Connor. He was by far the most aggressive GC rider until destiny and hidden kerb stepped in a little later.
The easier slopes nearing the top of the climb then helped spark a regrouping of the main GC favourites, with Poels, Tiberi, Lopez, O’Connor and teammate Valentin Paret-Peintre joined by Ivan Sosa (Movistar), Romain Bardet (Team dsm-firmenich-PostNL), Chris Harper (Jayco-AIUIa), Michael Storer (Tudor ProCycling) and a flagging Higuita.
Carr led over the Vetriolo with a minute’s advantage, but the action did not let up in the chase group on the descent, as first Harper, then O’Connor tested the waters downhill.
The roads were thankfully smooth and broad given the aggressive racing, but Harper crashed at speed on curve, sliding out and then slamming his head against a post. O’Connor crashed in the same spot, losing his slight advantage on Lopez but thankfully seemingly only suffering minor grazes and able to get up and continue.In contrast Harper seemed dazed and was unable to race on.
The crash took the punch out of the leader’s group, allowing Carr to all but triple his advantage to nearly three minutes as he tackled the unclassified ascent of the Colle San Marco.
When Valentin Paret-Peintre made an attack from the front group with some 13 kilometres to go, it brought almost no response from Lopez. A cagey series of attacks and regroupings followed almost all the way to the finish.
There was time for one last blistering attack by O’Connor, despite the cuts and grazes visible on his arm but Storer was quick to outpace him at the finish, and López could keep control of the green leaders jersey despite all the challenges. He leads O’Connor by 38 seconds, with Tiberi and a select few others at 48 seconds.
One day of mountain racing remains on Friday but the Lidl-Trek leader has put the hardest stages behind him, and the former Giro d’Italia leader and appears on track to add overall victory to Wednesday’s first professional career victory.
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