DOMEN NOVAK 2ND ON MARMOLADA AS MIKEL LANDA RETAINS PODIUM POSITION
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Domen Novak continued to show his impressive form in this year’s Giro, taking second place from the breakaway on stage 20, while Mikel Landa finished 9th and, more importantly, gained time on the now second-place Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers), who lost the Maglia Rosa to Jai Hindley (Bora Hansgrohe).
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The penultimate stage was the final chance for a major shakeup in the GC, with the peloton taking on a mammoth 4,718 vertical meters over the 168km. The stage saw an early breakaway form on an uncategorized climb after 20km, which Novak entered alongside 13 other riders, including the day’s eventual stage winner Alessandro Covi (UAE Team Emirates).
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Covi attacked the breakaway on the Passo Pordoi and had a gap of 2:20 from the rest of the break and 5 minutes from the peloton. Bahrain Victorious took control in the peloton for most of the stage, with the potential of Novak being a handy lieutenant for Landa later on. Although, with 6km to go on the final climb, Domen was given the clear to fight for the win: “Second place always feels like a disappointment. I tried my best and put in everything to try and win and was just a bit too short, but this is cycling. Next year I will come and win a stage.
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The first plan today was to win the stage with Mikel, with the guys pulling behind while I was in the break.
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On Passo Pordoi, Covi attacked and went at his pace and survived to the finish line. It was before the last climb that the team decided I would go to try win the stage, and I went full to try and catch him.”
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In the GC battle, Ineos moved to the front on the final climb, and Carapaz went clear with Hindley as Landa started to lose the wheel. However, in the last few km, Carapaz lost contact with Hindley, and Landa was able to catch the Ecuadorian, gaining 39 seconds and now sitting just 26 seconds behind ahead of the ITT in Verona.
Mikel Landa will continue to fight on for the highest possible finish in GC: “Today’s been the last Mountain stage, I’ve not had the best feelings, but I think we worked well. We had Domen on the breakaway, and then we tried to put a hard pace at the back. We suffered all a bit with the tailwind. On the last climb, I did my best. I dropped a bit at the beginning, and then I took my pace and gained some time with Carapaz, which is good but maybe not enough looking to move to second place. But tomorrow is the ITT, and till the last km, this is not finished.”
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