Frenchman Arnaud Demare Victorious on a Chaotic Crash Marred Sprint Finish
Arnaud Demare of Groupama-FDJ took the win in today’s stage of the 2019 Giro d’Italia after a crash took down several of the sprint favorites
Valerio Conti (UAE Team Emirates) retained the Maglia Rosa of General Classification leader
Stage 10 of the 2019 Giro d’Italia was a 145km from Ravenna to Modena with just 150m of elevation change.
Luca Covili (Bardiani-CSF) and Sho Hatsuyama (Nippo-Vini Fantini) established the day's breakaway and gap of four minutes.
Today’s stage was just one of three sprint opportunities left in the race and everyone was looking at Pascal Ackermann to take another stage.
The intermediate sprint points went to Covili the first time around with Hatsuyama jumping to take the bonus at the second sprint point.
The break got caught with about 30km remaining, Ackermann and his BORA-hansgrohe teammates were seen moving up towards the front of the peloton.
With about 7 kms go, Thomas De Gendt made a move that caught more than a few people by surprise as the sprinters teams came together.
Francisco Ventoso made the first attack with 2km to go, and held out until the flamme rouge.
A bad crash that may have been started by sprint favorite Pascal Ackermann, saw him limp home, his whole kit shredded.
Up front Arnaud Demare sprinted from the left had side while Viviani and Ewan were on the right. On the line, Demare's solo sprint outgunned Ewan and Viviani.
Stage winner Arnaud Demare said: “We came to the Giro for this. I really wanted a stage win and I got it. I avoided the crash because we, as a team, were very well positioned. I’m super happy.”
The race leader Valerio Conti said: “I hope nothing bad happened to my team mate Simone Consonni in the crash. I have been well protected by my team the whole day. I thank them for giving me one more day in the Maglia Rosa.”
VIDEO: 2019 Giro d'Italia Stage 10 Highlights
2019 Giro d'Italia Stage 10 Top 10
1 Arnaud Demare (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 3:36:07
2 Elia Viviani (Ita) Deceuninck-QuickStep
3 Rüdiger Selig (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe
4 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Lotto Soudal
5 Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita) Dimension Data
6 Davide Cimolai (Ita) Israel Cycling Academy
7 Manuel Belletti (Ita) Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec
8 Giovanni Lonardi (Ita) Nippo-Vini Fantini-Faizane
9 Jasper De Buyst (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:00:02
10 Jacopo Guarnieri (Ita) Groupama-FDJ 0:00:04
2019 Giro d'Italia GC after stage 10
1 Valerio Conti (Ita) UAE Team Emirates 39:44:39
2 Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma 0:01:50
3 Nans Peters (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:02:21
4 José Rojas (Spa) Movistar Team 0:02:33
5 Fausto Masnada (Ita) Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec 0:02:36
6 Andrey Amador (CRc) Movistar Team 0:02:39
7 Amaro Antunes (Por) CCC Team 0:03:05
8 Valentin Madouas (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:03:27
9 Giovanni Carboni (Ita) Bardiani CSF 0:03:30
10 Pello Bilbao (Spa) Astana Pro Team 0:03:32