Astana in attack at Stage 10 of Giro d'Italia
A breakaway of 17 riders went away with Astana Pro Team rider Luis Leon Sanchez among the escapers. But, the pink jersey group did not give them too much space since one of the favorites, the blue jersey Esteban Chaves has dropped on the climb and a few teams decided to use this situation, increasing the pace even more.
The breakaway of Luis Leon Sanchez tried to stay in front as long as possible, but finally, it was caught. The peloton continued riding very fast, increasing its lead over the group of Esteban Chaves, who, finally was forced to give up, losing more than 25 minutes at the finish line.
"What a stage! Crazy start and a very tough day on the road. There was a real war at the first climb and our team did its best to stay next to Miguel Angel Lopez and to support him. We knew it could be a good opportunity for the breakaway, so it was our plan to fight for a stage win. Our riders did a few attacks - firstly Luis Leon Sanchez and Pello Bilbao and in the final it was Davide Villella. So, in general, we have spent a good day, but, of course, it could be even better with a stage victory. Now we are looking forward to the next stages," said sports director Dmitri Sedoun.
With around 70 km to go it was Italian rider Marco Frapporti, who launched an attack to stay in front of the race for 35 kilometers, when he was caught by Astana's Davide Villella, who counterattacked from the peloton, and Matej Mohoric. Later, this group was joined by the German rider Nico Denz.
On the top of the final climb Mohoric and Denz were able to attack and to drop Villella. Finally, it was Mohoric, who won the stage outsprinting Denz at the finish line in Gualdo Tadino.
Davide Villella did his best to stay in front, fighting until the end, but was caught by the peloton inside the final 3 kilometers.
"I found a good moment for attack with around 40 km to go. Mohoric joined me and together we caught the solo leader. We had a good collaboration, but a few rivals as well as the peloton were close. On the final climb I just missed some energy to follow the attack of Mohoric. I did all I could to follow him, but in that moment I was just empty. The start of the stage was crazy and we had to spend a lot of energy to protect our leader in the first half of the race. Yeah, anyway, it was a good try," said Davide Villella.
The peloton finished 34 seconds behind the stage winner, while Sam Bennett closed the daily podium with third place. Miguel Angel Lopez, Pello Bilbao and Luis Leon Sanchez all finished safely inside the main group.
Simon Yates holds the lead in the general classification of the Giro d'Italia, while Pello Bilbao and Miguel Angel Lopez moved up to 8th and 12th places, respectively (+2.08 and +2.37).
Another difficult hilly stage is waiting for the riders tomorrow: stage 11 will be held between Assisi and Osimo with a total distance of 156 km.