Another step ahead of Michel Ries in the U23 Giro standings
Giro de Italia U23
Stage 5: Darfo Boario Terme-Malga di Dimaro (127.8 km)
Second top final of the Giro d’Italia U23, second consecutive Colombian victory and second consecutive eleventh place for Michel Ries. British rider Stephen Williams (SEG) is the new leader of the corsa rosa and the Luxembourg boy of the Polartec-Kometa will climb to ninth place in the general standings after a day in which Einer Augusto Rubio (Team Colombia) won.
A demanding and hard stage, with three mountain pass on the menu and a somewhat bitter prologue to the retirement of Juan Pedro Lopez. The weather, the cold and the rain present during two thirds of it, will harden the route even more. Sixteen riders, none of them from the Polartec-Kometa, will be on the run, with the race advancing unstoppably towards the climb to the Tonale, the ‘Coppi summit’ of this edition, crowned in first place by the Colombian Cristian Muñoz.
The Madrid squad will be used to keep Ries protected and in good position for the final climb, with a really demanding final two kilometres. The talented Grand Ducal rider, riding in the group of illustrious people, will even go on the attack. Finally he will arrive at the finish line with the leader Alejandro Osorio, 34 seconds from the winner of the stage.
“It’s been a really demanding and hard day,” he proclaims. “I launched an attack in the last two kilometres and I was riding for the 5th place of the stage, but unfortunately I cracked a bit in the last really steep 200 metres and lost some places. But I think I can be happy with my performance”. Ries, who has advance three places in the provisional general standings, is 56 seconds behind the pink jersey and he is fourth in the youth rankings. Matteo Moschetti, on the other hand, is holding on to another day the red jersey for points.
Isaac Canton will finish in 53rd place, 9:38 from Rubio, to climb six positions in a general standings where he is already 51st. Diego Pablo Sevilla climbs ten and is now 99th after having finished 96th in a group that reached just under eighteen minutes.
This Wednesday, the race will link Dimaro Folgarida and Pergine Valsugana over 120.7 kilometres. A sixth stage with a first part favorable and two mountainous difficulties in a second more broken. Madrano, at kilometre 70, and above all Albere di Tenna, sixteen kilometres from the finish, will hamper a possible sprint finish in which Matteo Moschetti emerges as one of the great favourites.
(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)
