Richard Carapaz won the eleventh stage of the Giro d’Italia on Wednesday. The Ecuadorian from EF Education-EasyPost surprised his competitors in the general classification with an attack on the final climb. Isaac del Toro retained the pink jersey.
The 31-year-old Carapaz struck at the right moment in the stage through the mid-mountains from Viareggio to Castelnovo ne’ Monti. The 2019 Giro winner accelerated at the foot of the last climb and soloed 9 kilometers to the finish.
At the finish, Carapaz had a ten-second lead over the Mexican pink jersey wearer Del Toro, who won the sprint of the remaining classification men. Primoz Roglic, Juan Ayuso, and Dutchman Thymen Arensman also finished in this group.
Thanks to his lead and the ten-second bonus for the stage victory, Carapaz makes a leap in the standings. After his poor time trial on Tuesday, he had dropped to ninth place, but now the Ecuadorian is sixth. His deficit to Del Toro is less than two minutes.
The sprinters will be back in action on Thursday in the Giro. The next mountain stage is on Sunday, when the riders will have to conquer the Monte Grappa, among other things. The Italian stage race lasts until Sunday, June 1.
Poels May Dream of A Trilogy
Wout Poels added color to the eleventh stage, which passed over the arduous Alpe San Pellegrino. The Dutch stage hunter from XDS-Astana rode ahead for a long time with Nairo Quintana, Pello Bilbao, Luke Plapp, and teammate Lorenzo Fortunato.
It looked promising for the five leaders for a while, but in the final, the group with favorites picked up the pace, and the escapees had no chance. Poels did underline that he is in good shape. The 37-year-old from Limburg wants to complete his trilogy of stage victories in major tours in this Giro.
At the moment the escapees were caught, Carapaz launched his attack. None of the other classification men could or wanted to go with the shrewd Ecuadorian. Carapaz quickly gained a half-minute lead and held it well to the finish.
Thus, Carapaz further expanded his impressive list of honors. In addition to the overall victory in the Giro d’Italia in 2019, he now has eight stage victories in major tours to his name: four in the Giro, one in the Tour de France, and three in the Vuelta a España.