Australian Caleb Ewan took his second Giro d’Italia stage win in Novi Ligure today.
The 24-year-old Lotto-Soudal rider won the bunch sprint and completed the 221km 11th stage in 5:17:26.
Under the flamme rouge Bora-Hansgrohe moved up to the front of the peloton with Pascal Ackermann, while yesterday’s winner Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) moved onto the back of Ewan.
Ackermann then launched an attack, but Ewan proved strongest and took the victory with Demare second and Ackermann holding on for third.
“I think Ackermann has proven he’s one of the quickest here, and to be honest he was the first sprinter who came past me with a good train, so I decided to jump on him,” said Ewan, who placed second in this year’s Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.
“My guys got me into a really good position where I didn’t have to fight for the wheels too much. That just made my run a whole lot easier. He went quite early so I could just sit there and time my sprint to perfection.”
Today’s stage saw another early break, which included Marco Frapporti (Androni-Giocattoli-Sidermec), Mirco Maestri (Bardiani-CSF) and Damiano Cima (Nippo-Fantini-Faizanè).
The trio’s maximum lead was six minutes after 25km of racing. With 25.5km remaining the break were consumed by the peloton and it was gruppo compatto until the attacks in the finalé.
Valerio Conti (UAE Team Emirates) held on to the pink jersey.
“It was a long and sunny stage. So I enjoyed it very much. Tomorrow it’ll be harder to keep the jersey because the main climb is a hard one. But I want to keep the Maglia Rosa tomorrow also,” he said.
