Get all your news in one place.

100’s of premium titles.
One app.

Start reading

Get all your news in one place.

100’s of premium titles. One news app.

Start reading

Cycling Weekly

Sport

Alex Lancaster-Lennox

Kasper Asgreen takes sensational solo victory from the breakaway on dramatic Giro d’Italia stage 14

Kasper Asgreen Giro Mads Pedersen Richard Carapaz Antonio Tiberi Ita Del Toro Juan Ayuso Kaden Groves Mirco Maestri Olav Kooij

Kasper Asgreen celebrates his first Giro stage victory .

EF Education-EasyPost rider Kasper Asgreen took a sensational solo victory from the breakaway on Giro d’Italia stage 14 after a dramatic final 20km.

The victory marks the rider’s first win on his debut Giro d’Italia and his second Grand Tour stage victory, increasing EF Education-EasyPost’s stage wins to two so far this tour.

Kaden Groves (Alpecin - Deceuninck) and Olav Kooij (Visma–Lease a Bike) fought out a bunch sprint to round out the podium 16 seconds behind Asgreen.

Stage 14 was far beyond simple as the General Classification has been completely flipped on its head, after a huge crash with 22km to go has put the ambitions of many including Juan Ayuso and Primoz Roglic on the rocks.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Although it was presumed that this was going to end in a sprint, there were early efforts to form a breakaway.

After an initial 11-rider breakaway failed, being reined quickly back in, five riders eventually managed to establish themselves as Kasper Asgreen led the charge and gaining 50 seconds on the peloton.

The five soon became four as Louis Meintjes (Intermarche-Wanty) dropped back to rejoin the peloton, leaving Asgreen, Clément Davy (Groupama-FDJ), Mirco Maestri (Polti VisitMalta), and Martin Marcellusi (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizane) to push the pace and extend the gap to 1 minute 35 seconds with 155km to go.

While at first the breakaway managed to maintain their 90-second advantage, the peloton did not let it stay that way, holding them in tow. And so, once that had been reduced, the intermittent rainy showers throughout the stage meant the breakaway was kept at just over a minute advantage.

At 117km to go, the first of three intermediate sprints saw the four riders in the break take the majority of the points, and Mads Pedersen seemed poised to take the final point after leading the peloton. But the Maglia Ciclamino was strangely robbed at the line by Dries De Bondt (Decathlon–AG2R La Mondiale) - leaving fans and Pedersen as shocked as each other.

The Dane redeemed himself on the second, having to out-sprint a persistent De Bondt to add the sole point to his overall standings tally.

For the majority of the stage, the weather was seemingly the only changeable aspect, as the peloton, including the Maglia Rosa Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) continued to sit back and maintain the gap with the leaders.

But everything changed as a huge crash at the front of the peloton on the cobbles with only 22km to go splintered the group and wiped out many riders. Lidl Trek were the most affected by the crash, with Pedersen needing his bike changed and Giulio Ciccone receiving medical attention before carrying on.

Del Toro escaped being tangled in the crash and found his way into the front split, aiming to chase down the leaders who were comfortably ahead.

With 20km to go, the field was now splintered, Wout Van Aert (Visma–Lease a Bike) was pulling the leading group to chase down the breakaway 54 seconds clear and within 10km they were reeled in to be just over 10 seconds ahead.

However, the cobbled course in Nova Gorica proved challenging as Del Toro narrowly avoided causing another crash on the same sector where it had occurred in the lap before.

And with 5km to go, Asgreen broke from the front of the race, leaving Maestri and Marcellusi, who were eventually caught by the chase pack, in his tracks.

From there, Asgreen rode to victory, having been at the front of the race for 164km, taking a sensational solo victory on his debut tour.

Groves and Kooij beat out the chase pack to round off the podium, beating out fierce competition from Olruis Aular, Richard Carapaz, Tom Pidcock, and others.