Looking for the break and protection of Sergio Garcia on another day of high speed

42º Giro d´Italia Giovani Under 23
Stage 7: Dimaro Folgarida – Levico Terme (137.1 km)

A frenetic day in the Giro Baby after all the orographic hardness of the previous days. The British Alfred Wright, catapulted by a leak in the circuit that housed the last kilometers, won in Levico Terme, where he marked an astonishing average of 47.9 km/h. The riders of the Kometa Cycling Team saved the day without special hardship, arriving in a main squad that would reach the finish within 23 seconds of the winner. Not even the tremendous hailstones that appeared during the stage didn’t slow down the combative spirits of the riders.

The starting point for the Kometa Cycling Team was to try to catch the good escape, a task in which both Edu Pérez-Landaluce and Arturo Grávalos were involved, as well as to protect Sergio García from any mishap. “The idea was to try to catch the leak. Once again it went very fast all day long. In the only scoring port of the stage the selection of Colombia began to set a very aggressive pace that made it virtually impossible for anyone to leave. In the final part we entered a very buzzer circuit and up to the finish line it went very fast again”, explains the Asturian rider.

“The day was nonsense, it flew away. We all arrived in the front group. Arturo went through a moment of weakness, because before he had tried to get into a leak, he fought, and in the end he had a moment of crisis. Although it was difficult for him, he managed to connect with the pack again. Sergio on the other hand could have had a good day, although he had to apply himself to fill the gap generated by a fall that took place in the pack at the end of the stage,” said the director Rafa Diaz Justo.

“All my teammates have been very careful not to let anything happen to me, especially Jhon. The idea was to pass the stage as calm as possible, but has returned to fly throughout the day,” says Sergio Garcia, who maintains his 19th place in the general standings. Jhon Stiven Ramirez was the best classified in the stage, the 20th.

This Saturday the Giro Baby faces its penultimate stage. Again the mountain returns. Falcade will host a much more affordable finish than other precedents because it is a much more inclined climb. Before that, however, the riders will have to climb Passo Cereda and Forcella Aurine.

(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)

📸 Andrew Peat