The group sprint is back and the sprint still speaks German: in Foligno – Kittel out of the game, delayed by a mechanical accident 5 km from the finish – André Greipel once again imposes himself with power, despite starting late, slipping into a gap between Nizzolo and Modolo who once again have to bow to the “Deutsch uber alles”. For the sprinter from Rostock, known as the Gorilla, with an old-fashioned face as a worker of the ex-GDR, it is the fifth victory in the Giro and also his first one-two in the pink race. With yesterday's success in Spoleto, Greipel overtook Rudy Altig and Marcel Kittel in four positions. A challenge entirely between panzerns that could be further updated during the Giro because there will be other stages for sprinters made to measure to enhance the superiority of Merkel's sprinters. “They are heavyweights, ours are middleweights”, ruled one who had no rivals in terms of sprints like Mario Cipollini, when interviewed on the reason for the umpteenth defeat of Nizzolo and Modolo. “My legs count, not the data”, explains the Gorilla to those who asked him how many watts he had exploded in the sprint. Against Greipel and Kittel these days not only lose the Italians but also other VIPs of the sprints such as the French Arnaud Démare, twice second in Arnhem and Benevento, who yesterday in Spoleto got entangled in the traffic finishing only 14th on the finish line which in 2014 had seen one of the three successes of another Frenchman, Nacer Bouhanni.
In addition to giving his team, Lotto Soudal, the third consecutive victory in the aftermath of the triumph of Tim Wellens from yesterday with the new blue jersey for climbers, Greipel also conquered the red jersey of leader of the points classification by snatching it from Kittel, struck by bad luck, when the Giro was already looking forward to the mother of all sprints with a star challenge two all-German. In the stage of Greipel's great double, the men in the standings did not in the least annoy Tom Dumoulin's primacy after Thursday's skirmishes on the final ramps of Aramogna with the whip of the pink Dutch jersey that left Nibali dry. But after yesterday's transfer fraction, the Giro is about to face a weekend that could be the first watershed in the ambitions of the big names: already today the race offers ambush opportunities for those who want to dare with the climb, for over 6km on dirt road, from the Alpe di Poti with even double-digit gradients 10 km from the finish on a fairly uphill straight road from Arezzo. In yesterday's city of Fanfani and Gelli, today of the Boschi and the disastrous Banca Etruria, the Giro returns for the 12th time: the last time was in 2003 with the victory of Mario Cipollini. Tomorrow Sunday will be followed by the eagerly awaited Chianti time trial of 40,5 km from Radda to Greve, a tough route that will give the first real shock to the standings with Tom Dumoulin as the great favourite. And the Dutchman does nothing to hide, on the contrary he is a candidate as the winner. A tempting chance to give depth to his thick jersey by extending the advantage which today is only seconds over Nibali and Valverde in view of the approaching mountains.
