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Misfortune strikes Richie Porte as breakaway stage major coup on Stage 10

Richie Porte lost vital time on Stage 10 of the Giro. (Photocredit: David Hill/The Roar)
Roar Guru
19th May, 2015
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Disaster struck Sky Pro Cycling and Maglia Rosa favourite Richie Porte after a mechanical issue within the final eight kilometres of Stage 10 caused the Tasmanian to lose time to his rivals on the flat stage.

Predicted to be a day for the sprinters, with fewer and fewer opportunities coming up for the sprinters to claim a stage victory, the breakaway staged a surprise coup as Nicola Boem of Bardiani – CSF claimed the stage honours. Failing to catch the breakaway before the line the the top four was rounded out by Boem’s breakaway compatriots: Matteo Busato (Southeast), Alessandro Malaguti (Nippo – Vini Fantini) and Alan Maragoni (Cannondale – Garmin) respectively.

The breakaway of the day was formed early on in to the stage by five riders, with Oscar Gatto joining the four aforementioned riders before bowing out due to an unfortunate puncture within 11 kilometres of the finish. While the peloton would never let the breakaway’s time gap exceed five minutes the chase effort from primarily Lotto Soudal, with Giant – Alpecin and Trek Factory Racing providing some assistance, was not enough to reel in the breakaway.

Within the final six kilometres of the stage, with the peloton still fighting to reel in the breakaway, a mechanical issue for Richie Porte saw the Sky Pro Cycling team drop off the back of the peloton to help assist their team leader. However, with the race directors pulling the convoy of cars out of the gap due to a general classification contender being caught out the task of catching the peloton was too hard for Team Sky despite some assistance from Orica – GreenEDGE’s Michael Matthews.

Going in to the final kilometre and over the pave it was Cannondale – Garmin’s Alan Maragoni that launched the first attack. The 30-year-old Italian would be reeled in by Nicola Boem of Bardiani – CSF, with Boem launching his sprint to the line after making the catch. Despite the best efforts of Southeast’s Matteo Busato no one could catch 25-year-old Nicola Boem before the finishing line.

The peloton eventually crossed the line just 18 seconds down on stage winner Boem, led by Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek Factory Racing) winning the sprint for the consolation positions ahead of Sacha Modolo (Lampre – Merida) and Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal).

With Maglia Rosa Alberto Contador and Astana duo Fabio Aru and Mikel Landa finishing comfortably within the peloton the wait was now on to see how much time Sky Pro Cycling and Richie Porte would cede in the general classification.

Struggling to hold the wheels of his team mates at times, eventually Richie Porte and his team mates would cross the line one minute and five seconds down on stage winner Nicola Boem, 47 seconds down on the peloton. While the individual time trial is still to come the time loss sustained today puts a dent in to Richie Porte’s Maglia Rosa ambitions, gifting the Tasmanian’s rivals a larger time buffer ahead of the time trial.

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Tomorrow will not be any easier for the riders as they tackle another medium mountain stage from Forli to Imola, 153 kilometres in length. With the 2015 Giro d’Italia continuing to surprise and entertain each and every day, even on the supposed sprint stages, what could Stage 11 have in store?

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