Stefano Oldani (24) took advantage of the excessive marking on his teammate Mathieu Van der Poel (27) and was able to exploit his secondary status to exalt the pride of Italy for the second consecutive day. First professional victory of his career for Alpecin in the longest stage of this Giro (204 km). A day, very similar to a classic full of traps, in which a breakaway of 22 runners was formed, with illustrious names such as Van der Poel (Alpecin), Kelderman (Bora) or Mollema (Trek). In the end, in the breakaway, Stefano Oldani (Alpecin) was faster than Lorenzo Rota (Intermarché) and Gijs Leemreize (Jumbo). From behind, the Trek had to work to control the distance with respect to Kelderman, and Juanpe López saved the pink jersey despite reaching the finish line with nine minutes.
The cyclists forgot their laziness and this time they really ran (they arrived 36 minutes early). The stage, with three important third category ports, was an invitation to breakaways and a large group left with spurious intentions. Among them, Van der Poel, in need of victories after 12 days of racing and after his second place in the Jesi sprint, which was won by the Eritrean Girmay. The Belgian was the man to follow in the breakaway, control over him was absolute, so when Lorenzo Rota decided to attack with 50km to go, Oldani saw the opportunity to follow him without attracting attention. Along with them was the Dutchman Gijs Leemreize.
Later it was Bauke Mollema who tried to close the gap with the breakaways and took Kelderman with him, with options for the lead, Hamilton and Buitrago. Van der Poel lamented his fate. And meanwhile, the man from Bora began a time trial with the peloton to try to wear pink, something that the Trek would finally prevent by controlling the pace of a very relaxed peloton.
On arrival, the Dutchman Leemreize knew he was the slowest, which is why he attacked with 900 meters to go. He repeated at 500. But Oldani thwarted both attempts with a display of power and then went on the offensive. Rota kept to his wheel, he even seemed to have the strength to overtake him, but he was not able to overtake Alpecin's. Oldani took revenge against Intermarché after Girmay's triumph against Van der Poel, sacrificed on this occasion
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