Andrea Vendrame, the smartest in a high-level breakaway, wins stage 19 of the Giro

New victory for Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale, their second in this Giro d'Italia 2024 after the one achieved in stage 10 by Valentin Paret-Paintre. The Italian culminated a tremendously fought and high-quality breakaway. Pelayo Sánchez, once again with great legs, reacted late and had to settle for second place.

A predicted breakaway triumphs in the Giro d'Italia 2024 prior to the last big mountain stage

A medium mountain stage for stage 19 of the Giro d'Italia 2024, covering 157 kilometers between Montegliano and Sappada, was set up as an ideal day for a breakaway of high-quality cyclists to seek the last opportunity to win a stage.

With this scenario, as expected, there were many candidates to join the breakaway of the day, so the pace was high in the first part, with a mainly flat route, taking more than 50 kilometers to consolidate a group that included regulars of this Giro d'Italia 2024 such as Plapp, Alaphilippe, Pelayo Sánchez, Jhonatan Narváez... while behind, attacks continued and a chasing group was formed with riders like Steinhauser, Valgreen, or Tratnik who, after several kilometers of struggle, managed to merge with the leading group to form a breakaway of 19 cyclists.

At that moment, the peloton completely split and the time gap began to increase to figures close to 10 minutes as none of the leading cyclists posed any threat in the general classification. The best placed was Narváez with over an hour lost compared to Tadej Pogacar.

Understanding in the breakaway until they entered the final part of the stage, with no flat sections and linking ascents to Passo Duron, short but very steep, Sella Valcada, and Cima Sappada, which was crowned just 7 kilometers from the finish. A long and steady climb except for its last 2 kilometers with an initial section above 11%.

Already at Passo Duron, the most active once again was Julian Alaphilippe, who repeatedly tried to break the breakaway and select the group. This meant that only the strongest riders remained in front, who we had been seeing regularly throughout the group.

After a fast descent, they reached Serra Valcada where the script was repeated by the Frenchman in a back-and-forth battle in which Jhonatan Narváez, Georg Steinhauser, and Pelayo Sánchez always responded. Also arriving at their own pace were Plapp, Quinten Hermans, or Andre Vendrame.

After cresting together, Andrea Vendrame decided to take a chance on the descent and managed to gain a few seconds over Alaphilippe and Narváez. In fact, at the end of the descent, they had practically caught up with the Italian when they managed to link up, led by Pelayo Sánchez, the rest of the group. This caused a slight pause, just enough for Andrea Vendrame to increase his lead to 30 seconds, which would not be reduced because, as usual, once they started the final climb, his pursuers began to attack each other.

Of these attacks, only Steinhauser's and, a little later, Pelayo Sánchez's, were successful as he went after the German and, in the tough section of the climb to Sappada, he overtook him and went solo but with no chance of winning the stage as Vendrame crossed the finish line with over a minute's lead over the Asturian.
Andrea Vendrame thus achieved the second victory for Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale in this Giro d'Italia 2024, the twenty-second of the season for the French team that has become the team to watch this campaign.

When we thought nothing would happen among the general classification riders, Einer Rubio attacked in the final part of the climb trying to gain seconds in the classification but without managing to drop any of his rivals. However, this was the trigger for the scare of the day. After cresting, the group stopped, Geraint Thomas looked back for a moment trying to assess the group and then Tiberi crashed very spectacularly.

In a day without competitiveness among them, the favorites' group stopped so that the Welshman could reintegrate without problems, although it remains to be seen if the crash, as we said, dry and spectacular, does not affect him for the important stage tomorrow on Monte Grappa.

Stage 19 Classification

1. Andrea Vendrame (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) 3h51'05''
2. Pelayo Sánchez (Movistar Team) +54''
3. Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-EasyPost) +1'07''
4. Jhonatan Narváez (INEOS Grenadiers) +2'27''
5. Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla) +2'27''
6. Simone Velasco (Astana) +2'30''
7. Jan Tratnik (Visma-Lease a Bike) +2'30''
8. Michael Valgren (EF Education-EasyPost) +2'30''
9. Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) +2'32''
10. Quinten Hermans (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +3'52''

General Classification

1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 71h24'03''
2. Daniel Felipe Martínez (Bora-Hansgrohe) +7'42''
3. Geraint Thomas (INEOS Grenadiers) +8'04''
4. Ben O'Connor (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) +9'47''
5. Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) +10'29''
6. Thymen Arensman (INEOS Grenadiers) +11'10''
7. Romain Bardet (DSM-Firmenich-PostNL) +12'42''
8. Einer Rubio (Movistar Team) +13'33''
9. Filippo Zana (Jayco-AlUla) +13'52''
10. Jan Hirt (Soudal-QuickStep) +14'44''