Bais, golden points. And here comes another Top10
Rain, lots of rain. And cold, so cold. This is a Giro that has no mercy for the riders, their muscles, their fatigue: and it hits the peloton with days like this, to hit a group already battered by a week of bad weather. We at EOLO KOMETA have our hearts divided in half: happy for the good things that happened to us again today, sad for the withdrawal of our Erik Fetter who had to leave the race after days when he was not well.
The good things, we said. Davide Bais had promised that he would do everything to defend his blue jersey, and he was true to his word: even today he was good at getting into a breakaway and passing first on the GPM. Points in his pocket in the climbers’ classification, another small step towards his (our) dream: now Davide has 104 points, with the first pursuer Pinot stopped at 50 points.
And then, the finish: because there is no day without EOLO KOMETA hitting a top 10 with one of its boys. Today Maestri did it, guided masterfully by his captain Gavazzi, who in the bunch sprint finished 9th showing that he is in condition and recovering after the bad fall a few days ago. In the end the Danish Magnus Cort Nielsen (EF Education Easypost) won ahead of Derek Gee (Israel Premier Tech) and Alessandro de Marchi (Jayco AlUla), who had been protagonists of the breakaway with our Bais.
Stefano Zanatta: “Today was a very difficult day, with very bad weather that accompanied us from start to finish. Davide was once again very good at getting into the breakaway of the day going to catch the attackers to score points on the GPM, then unfortunately in the descent he froze and many athletes went in trouble. He preferred to change and put on something dry to arrive quietly with the group. The race was then decided on the descent, with Gavazzi and Maestri staying with the first group, then Mirco made a nice sprint and hit another placing. Negative note, unfortunately, the withdrawal of Fetter: he was already unwell, today’s day did not help and he was forced to stop on the descent because he was freezing.”
Davide Bais: “Today’s goal was to hit the breakaway of the day, I succeeded and took the GPM points. Then I suffered so much from the cold and I was sorry to have left the breakaway because it finally made it to the finish line, but really I was blocked by the cold: by the way I was in the breakaway with my great friend De Marchi and I’m sorry that he didn’t win. As I have always said, I repeat that I will do everything I can to take this jersey as far as I can, maybe all the way to Rome: I will try my best.”
Mirco Maestri: “Also today a good placing, it never happened to me to make twice a top 10 at the Giro so there is to be satisfied. In the end Gavazzi was wonderful, he guided me splendidly and I have to thank him: reviewing the sprint I could have done a little better, but if I look at who came in front of me I see only great sprinters so I’m not complaining. I’m recovering from the crash a few days ago, I still have some pain but I’m hanging in there: today I honored the home stage, I tried to go in the breakaway but unfortunately I didn’t succeed.”
