Georg Steinhauser has conquered the Brocon Pass. Not once, but twice. The first time, with 32 km to go, when the Pink Caravan tackled the northern side, and the second time, from the southern side, when he took the first pro victory of his young career. Both times he was alone in the lead, he explored every centimetre of that mountain and, once at the top, he deservedly uncorked a nice bottle of champagne.
This young German, born in 2001 – he is the third from this year to win a stage on the Giro – is a modern, long-limbed climber, a good 189 cm for 65 kg. He had already shown his strength and talent on two previous occasions, having tried in Prati di Tivo, surrendering only to Tadej Pogačar‘s will to win, and then in Livigno, where he finished 3rd, again because Tadej was too eager to make his mark (in that case, he was also dropped by Quintana).
But today, Pogačar did not catch him, his will to win was not as acute as in recent days. “When they told me that he had attacked from the bunch, I trembled, but fortunately it went well” Steinhauser admitted after the finish.
After Movistar yesterday, today it was dsm-firmenich PostNL who seemed to try their best to make Pogačar win, injecting repeated flurries of pace and catching the first breakaway on the mid-stage climb of the Passo Gobbera. Fortunately, Steinhauser and a generous Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier (Lidl-Trek) had the resilience to try again after being on the attack all morning. UAE appeared in no mood to bring things back for a possible sixth win for Tadej Pogačar, so when dsm ran out of energy, nobody pushed things on and the front duo extended their lead permanently. Steinhauser then dropped Ghebreigzabhier to crest solo.
Ineos Grenadiers set the cruise control on the last climb, the southern side, but the set speed was too low to hope to catch Steinhauser. And catch him they did not. By the way, Pogačar – once again in a race of his own – still rode away from everyone, but at least we had a different stage winner.
