The king of breakaways Pietrobon and captain Maestri, 190 kilometers ‘in tandem’ towards Naples

After five breakaways in five days, Team Polti Kometa protected their positions in the group during the challenging stages of Tuscany strade bianche and Prati di Tivo uphill finish, while today they concluded the first week of the Giro d’Italia with a ninth stage… doubly on the attack!

Starting from Avezzano, two AURUM bikes took off alone: the green one ridden by Andrea Pietrobon and the grey one by Mirco Maestri. The two teammates rode together for 185 kilometers through Ciociaria to Campania, allowing Pietrobon (on the podium in Lucca on Wednesday) to lead the special fuga classification, and captain Maestri to pass first at the Intergiro in Giugliano.

At -25 there was not a real reabsorption, but rather a joining by five riders: the two Polti Kometa representatives continued their race within this reinforced group, not content to stay in the slipstream but taking regular turns. At -20 two men in front attacked, Pietrobon sat up while Maestri remained chasing the new leading pair along with Vermaerke (DSM), escaping from a peloton that took an additional five kilometers to catch them and the remaining escapees riders before the sprint in Naples.

Here are the words of the two main protagonists:

Andrea Pietrobon – “This route was on paper for sprinters, but the finale was quite tricky and for this reason we thought it was a good opportunity to break away. The other teams waited in the peloton, on our part it was a positive performance where we once again showed the attacking spirit that distinguishes us.”

Mirco Maestri – “I feel very good and we had circled this day on the calendar. Honestly, we thought someone would follow us: when we saw that it was just us two, we knew it would be very long and we wanted to honor the race, giving our best and not giving up even when Alaphilippe and the others caught up with us. It was great to have all the crowd cheering for us, now we really need this Monday of rest to relax body and mind and start again from Pompeii with even more determination!”

Sports director Stefano Zanatta: “We hoped to bring out a small leading group but no one followed our two guys, so we insisted managing our forces well and a great duo breakaway came out at 45 km/h on average. This is our way of trying, which allows us to seek results while ensuring good visibility.”