Via Marcel Kittel in Arezzo, André Greipel also out in Bibione, after these two withdrawals with the flavor of real desertions, Giacomo Nizzolo, having inherited the red jersey from Greipel, had seen the road wide open to achieve what he has been looking for since he has been a professional since 2011: a stage victory in the Giro after so many placings behind the two Germans, who left with an overall haul of five stages, two for the blond Marcantonio, three for the Rostock Gorilla.
This is why Nizzolo waited for the Dolomites to pass and for the Cassano d'Adda stage to arrive after so many hostile climbs, all flat, ideal for a sprinter like him, the best of the lot after so many withdrawals, including those of Viviani and, last to leave yesterday , also by Mezgec and Kaleb Ewan. But then another German, Roger Kluge, completely unknown to the general public but good in the long final that mocks all the sprinters, broke the dreams of the Trek rider at the finish line in Cassano, birthplace of Gianni Motta. remained in the group, taking the victories of the panzerns in this Giro to six.
Nizzolo is once again second, more and more in the red jersey because he collects other precious points that distance the threat brought by Diego Ulissi. Many are disappointed: in addition to Nizzolo, there are Sacha Modolo and Matteo Trentin once again placed but never winning. Filippo Pozzato also has a bitter taste who after the Adda bridge had attempted a progression giving the impression of being able to do it. Neither are Daniele Oss, the Belgian Bak, the Albanian Zhupa, the Lithuanian Konovalovas and the Russians Beltrov and Brutt in a good mood; that is, the six of the breakaway that enlivened the stage, which ended up on the straight road that leads from Treviglio to Cassano.
The only one to rejoice in the outcome of the stage is obviously Kluge, who achieved the most important victory of his career spent on the track rather than on the road, on the very day in which his team, the Swiss Iam, decided to close the shutter . Stage that came after the efforts in the Dolomites and on the eve of the first taste of the Alps in Pinerolo which did not produce any jolts in the classification which sees the Dutchman Steven Krujiswjick firmly in the pink jersey: a stage which also served Vincenzo Nibali, the great defeated of the Dolomites, to recover some morale in view of the alpine plateaus of Risoul and Sant'Anna di Vinadio.
This morning he will go to the doctor for some tests which will have to clarify the causes of the poor performance in the uphill time trial and in Andalo. But the Shark does not intend to give up and wants to honor the commitment to the end even if he himself admits that he is not at his best.
