16. mai 2018

Matej Mohoric wins the longest Giro stage

After a ride over 244 kilometers, BAHRAIN MERIDA PRO CYCLING TEAM’s Matej Mohoric got to celebrate a prestigious victory in Gualdo Tadino, winning the longest stage of the 101st Giro d’Italia. The young Slovene had worked hard for this success, riding in two different lead groups throughout the stage.

After the second rest day, the 101st Giro d’Italia served up a transitional stage that was very long. The 10th stage leading from Penne to Gualdo Tadino measured an impressive 244 kilometers in length. As for the three categorized climbs, two of these came in the first hour of racing with the last being due in the final hour. Right from the start, BAHRAIN MERIDA PRO CYCLING TEAM’s Matej Mohoric was in an attacking mood. As a reward, the young Slovene made it into a lead group that formed on the first categorized climb of the day and that grew from twelve to 14 riders. At first the gap to the peloton grew steadily to almost three minutes, but then the fight for the overall standings heated up and thwarted the chances of the attackers: As Esteban Chaves as the second-placed rider in the overall standings got dropped and the peloton split into two parts, the speed of the chasers increased substantially. As a consequence, the early lead group got reeled in bit by bit, and there were still 160 kilometers missing on the way to the finish line. For the next eighty kilometers, the pursuit race between the two parts of the peloton shaped the stage. As it started to rain even fewer riders were thinking about an attack.

But with 82 kilometers to go Marco Frapporti accelerated from the first peloton to make a bid for a solo stage win. When the Italian had built a lead of almost three minutes a number of teams upped the pace to chase him down. Meanwhile, Matej Mohoric dropped back to the team car to ask the sports directors of the BAHRAIN MERIDA PRO CYCLING TEAM for permission to attack one more time. When Davide Villella attacked with about 40 kilometers to go, he gave chase and these two riders caught up with Frapporti before the top of the day’s final categorized climb and dropped him right away. On the following descent on wet streets, Matej Mohoric made good use of his brilliant bike handling skills, dropping Villella repeatedly while getting caught by Nico Denz with about 20 kilometers to go. Throughout the final eleven kilometers these two riders cooperated nicely, keeping their chasers at bay. Matej Mohoric and Denz only started to play games on the last kilometer, with Mohoric riding from the front, dropping the speed a little bit and then accelerating to the win. This was the second victory of the season for him. As Esteban Chaves lost more than 25 minutes and dropped out of the top10, Domenico Pozzovivo moved up one place to 4th in the overall standings.


101ST GIRO D’ITALIA
STAGE 10: PENNE - GUALDO TADINO, 244KM

1. Matej Mohoric, SVN/BAHRAIN MERIDA PRO CYCLING TEAM, in 6:04.52 hours
2. Nico Denz, GER, st
3. Sam Bennett, IRL, + 0.34