This Giro d’Italia 2023 seems to somehow find a way to make us jerk on the couch every single day. Everybody would have bet on a quiet day today, as the stage was long – actually the longest, with it 219 km – and the six riders in the breakaway never caused much concern, as their gap never exceeded four minutes and Trek-Segafredo always kept them within reach. The ideal scenario for nice sprint finish in Tortona, also thanks to the significantly improved weather conditions since yesterday.
Once again, that was not the case. Today was another whirlwind of emotions, good and bad. Let’s start with the positive news, namely the thrilling final sprint. It didn’t come particularly cleanly, as a crash with 1500 metres to go broke up the peloton and sent several riders to the ground, including Fernando Gaviria (Movistar), whose team had worked in vain all day. The final 200 metres were nothing short of electrifying, with Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) opening things up first, but soon being caught by Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) and Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates), while from behind came Jonathan Milan (Bahrain Victorious), who unfortunately ran out of road in his incredible one-man pursuit mission.
