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Andre Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) has taken out Stage 7 of the 2016 Giro d’Italia after a frantic stage over a distance of 211 kilometres ended with a bunch sprint.
It was a tough start to the stage, with a Category 2 climb in the opening kilometres. It saw Stefan Kung unleash a flurry of attacks trying to establish the day’s breakaway, and sprinters being dropped off the back of the peloton.
Eventually a six rider group would establish itself as the day’s breakaway, gaining a maximum advantage of three minutes and 30 seconds.
The riders who escaped were Stefan Kung (BMC), Axel Domont (Ag2r), Giolui Ciccone (Bardiani-CSF), Stefan Denifl (IAM), Ilya Koshevoy (Lampre-Merida) and Daniel Martinez (Wilier-Triestina-Southeast).
The peloton meanwhile, splintered to bits. About 50 riders, with all of the general classification riders had about 2 minutes on the rest at one point, before they all sat up and the race gradually came back together.
From there, Lotto-Soudal and FDJ did a majority of the work on the front of the peloton, keeping the breakaway in touching distance and bringing them back to within one and a half minutes by the time the final climb was reached.
Damiano Cunego (Nippo Vini Fantini) would attack to try and maintain his lead on the King of the Mountains jersey, but to no avail before Marcel Kittel was dropped off the back of the peloton, but only by a handful of seconds
With a full team behind him, Kittel was able to bridge across to the peloton, while the breakaway splintered and Kung – easily the day’s most aggressive rider took the lead. He managed to hold the peloton off until the last 10 kilometres, but was eventually caught by a Lotto-Soudal led peloton.
Marcel Kittel would puncture in the run to the finish, and coming around the final corner, it was Caleb Ewan (Orica GreenEDGE) who had optimum position.
He couldn’t hold it though, with the legs failing back to fourth positoon, and Greipel coming around with a fantastic sprint for the win. Ewan would also be beaten by Giacomo Nizzolo and Sacha Modolo on the line.
In further bad news for Orica, Esteban Chavez would lose nine seconds on the line, dropping out of the top 10 in the GC.
In the end though, Andre Greipel too strong for everyone.
Top 5, Stage 7
1. Andre Greipel (Lotto Soudal) @ 5:01:08
2. Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek-Segafredo) + 0:00
3. Sacha Modolo (Lampre-Merida) + 0:00
4. Caleb Ewan (Orica GreenEDGE) + 0:00
5. Enrico Battaglin (Lotto NL-Jumbo) + 0:00
Top 5, General Classification after Stage 7
1. Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) @ 29:23:23
2. Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) + 0:26
3. Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) + 0:28
4. Bob Jungels (Etixx-Quickstep) + 0:35
5. Steven Kruijswijk (Lotto NL-Jumbo) + 0:38
The sprinters should return to the fore on Stage 7 of the 2016 Giro d’Italia, but a breakaway shouldn’t be ruled out on the 211-kilometre trek from Sulmona to Foligno. Join The Roar for live coverage from 10:30pm (AEST).
While the stage is relatively flat, there are some uncomfortbale looking climbs, and the weather could well play a part as it did yesterday on the first mountain stage of the race.
The breakaway that forms today will be full of riders who are good at climbing. The start of the stage before is lumpy, heading up to the Category 2 Le Svolte di Popoli, which is nine kilometres in length, after just 20 kilometres.
Flat, valley roads follow, before an uncategorised climb of about five kilometres, sending the riders back uphill to 900 metres above sea level.
With around 130 to go on the stage they will finally go back downhill, and continue gradually dropping altitude into the last 50 kilometres.
The Category 4 Valico Della Somma, which is about seven kilometres in length, sends the riders over the final difficulty of the day. This is only about 40 kilometres out from the finish line, and if any of the teams get aggressive, could see some already tired sprinters drop off the back of the pack.
A short descent follows, before a mainly flat run into the finish.
If it was to come to a sprint, then Andre Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) is my favourite. Despite the way Marcel Kittel (Etixx-Quickstep) has been riding, the day looks too tough for him to have the legs at the end.
The only other sprinter even worth considering is Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEDGE), who really does know how to ride a hill.
Prediction
The sprinters won’t like missing out on opportunities, but this one has breakaway written all over it. The stage is long enough that they will be afforded a big early lead, and the climb 40 kilometres from the line should prevent a catch.
I’ll take a wild stab in the dark and say Jay Robert Thompson (Dimension Data) or Jack Bobridge (Trek) are the men to take today’s stage.
Be sure to join The Roar for live coverage of Stage 7 from 10:30pm (AEST), and don’t forget to add your comments in the section below.
Follow Scott on Twitter @sk_pryde