Giro d’Italia Stage 14 Race Report: Kasper Asgreen (EF Education-EasyPost) soloed to victory on stage 14 of the Giro d’Italia in Novo Gorica. The Dane was off the front for 180 kilometres with the break of the day before he rode solo to the finish on Saturday. Not far behind him, Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) brought in what was left of the peloton. Many of the GC rider lost time due to a crash in the wet conditions.
Stage 14 finale
From Treviso, the fourteenth stage is on flat roads to Nova Goriza/Gorica, an Italian/Slovenian city. The final has a few short climbs, but another bunch sprint is expected.
In the final there is the San Martino and Saver climbs in the finale. Although the last climb is of less than 800 metres at 6.4% will not be a problem for the fast-finishers. The sprint is slightly downhill.
Can Mads Pedersen add another stage win
Many teams were looking for success on the stage, especially now that the riders are starting to get tired. There was a fierce battle for the early break and a strong leading group of 11 managed to escape. Among them were break specialists Taco van der Hoorn and Kasper Asgreen. There was also Wout van Aert, who seemed to be there by mistake. Also there was Quinten Hermans, Fabio Van den Bossche, Stan Dewulf, Dries De Bondt, Josef Cerny and Luke Lamperti.
Another good bet was Casper Van Uden
The peloton didn’t like the look of this group and 10 kilometres later they were caught, and a new leading group took their place. Asgreen was there again, but with Clément Davy, Mirco Maestri, Louis Meintjes and Martin Marcellusi. The five gained a maximum lead of 2 minutes, but the bunch didn’t want to give them any more time.
Del Toro and the other GC men will be looking for an easy day
For Meintjes it wasn’t going to work and so the South African dropped back into the peloton, as the other four kept going. Davy was dropped and with 30 kilometres to go, the three still had a 1 minute lead on the peloton.
The day started with some sun
At 23 kilometres from the finish, it all went wrong in the peloton. Pello Bilbao crashed at the front and a lot of the peloton crashed into him. The main victims of the crash were Giulio Ciccone and Antonio Tiberi, who would lose a lot of time. Ciccone was in tears after the crash, but would eventually continue.
The break of the day
A group of 17 riders, including Wout van Aert, Simon Yates, Olav Kooij, Kaden Groves, Richard Carapaz and Isaac Del Toro, rode on after the crash and continued at full speed to the finish in Novo Gorica. The next group, including Juan Ayuso, Thymen Arensman, Egan Bernal and Primoz Roglič was at about a minute.
The peloton was not going to let the break get too far away
In the final they managed to limit the damage a little, while the group with van Aert were chasing the leading group of Marcellusi, Maestri and Asgreen, who still had a 20 second lead with 6 kilometres to go. This was when the Dane decided to make a solo bid for victory. It looked like Asgreen was on his way to victory in Novo Gorica.
The showers were never far away
Behind Asgreen, Visma | Lease a Bike did everything they could to catch the flying Dane, but they came up short in the final. The 30-year-old Dane took his second stage victory in a Grand Tour. Asgreen won a similar stage in the Tour de France. Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) won the sprint for second place, 16 seconds behind Asgreen, just ahead of Olav Kooij (Visma | Lease a Bike) in third.
A wet peloton tried to pull the break back
The fans were out on the final climb
A group with Arensman, Roglič, Ayuso and Bernal, eventually lost 50 seconds to the group of Del Toro and Yates, while Tiberi, Adam Yates and Brandon McNulty were almost 2 minutes down. Ciccone lost many minutes and dropped out of GC contention. The overall standings were completely shaken up by the crash, but Del Toro was lucky and missed the carnage, so is still the leader with seven stages to go.
Visma | Lease a Bike pushed on after the crash
Asgreen was the strongest in the break
Stage winner, Kasper Asgreen (EF Education-EasyPost): “It was a tough day out there. It’s annoying that you have to destroy yourself completely like this to win bike races but when it works out it’s worth it so I’m super happy. The team gave me the permission and the freedom to go for it today and I’m super grateful for that. I knew that in the second half of a Grand Tour, everybody has tired legs and that made the difference today for the breakaway to be successful. The weather conditions have definitely played in my favour. The final circuit was quite technical. Wet roads made it harder for the bunch to catch us. It’s fantastic to win a stage of the Giro d’Italia after I did it at the Tour de France. I’m one step closer to the trilogy.”
Giro stage win for Casper Asgreen
Overall leader, Isaac Del Toro (UAE Emirates XRG): “I haven’t really seen the guys yet, so we’ll talk to the team now about how we’re going to do it. I still feel good. This is obviously not the way I want to gain time, but yeah, I couldn’t do anything about it. It was the circuit, that corner was so slippery. I was a bit behind, had to brake and went to the ground. Luckily I came back and it was all OK. No, absolutely not (does he blame Visma | Lease a Bike for riding after the crash). They were already riding when the crash happened, it’s part of the race. This was their plan, the crash had nothing to do with it.”
Mexican, Isaac Del Toro held the pink jersey
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Giro d’Italia Stage 14 Result:
1. Kasper Asgreen (Den) EF Education-EasyPost in 4:04:40
2. Kaden Groves (Aus) Alpecin-Deceuninck at 0:16
3. Olav Kooij (Ned) Visma | Lease a Bike
4. Orluis Alberto Aular Sanabria (Ven) Movistar
5. Stefano Oldani (Ita) Cofidis
6. Mirco Maestri (Ita) Polti VisitMalta
7. Derek Gee (Can) Israel-Premier Tech
8. Tom Pidcock (GB) Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team
9. Richard Carapaz (Ecu) EF Education-EasyPost
10. Mikkel Froelich Honoré (Den) EF Education-EasyPost.
Giro d’Italia Overall After Stage 14:
1. Isaac Del Toro Romero (Mex) UAE Emirates XRG in 50:37:55
2. Simon Yates (GB) Visma | Lease a Bike at 1:20
3. Juan Ayuso Pesquera (Spa) UAE Emirates XRG at 1:26
4. Richard Carapaz (Ecu) EF Education-EasyPost at 2:07
5. Primož Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe at 2:23
6. Derek Gee (Can) Israel-Premier Tech at 2:54
7. Damiano Caruso (Ita) Bahrain Victorious at 2:55
8. Antonio Tiberi (Ita) Bahrain Victorious at 3:02
9. Egan Arley Bernal Gomez (Col) INEOS Grenadiers at 3:38
10. Thymen Arensman (Ned) INEOS Grenadiers at 3:45.
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