Another favorite says goodbye. Tao Geoghegan crashes on stage 11 of the Giro

This Giro d'Italia 2023 is full of misfortunes. If these days it has been the Covid who has attacked the peloton, today we were deprived of another of the main contenders to win in the streets of Rome with the abandonment of Tao Geoghegan Hart after a spectacular crash in the second of the climbs that were ascended today.

Giro d'Italia of survival

At the beginning of the second week, the Giro d'Italia is already heavily affected and without some of the main favorites for the final victory. This time it is not due to external factors but to a race element such as crashes, with the bad luck of having left out one of the two strongholds of the INEOS-Grenadiers team.

Today was the eleventh stage of the race starting in Camaire and finishing in Tortona, the longest day of this Giro d'Italia with no less than 219 kilometers on an apparently simple profile that included the passage through three small mountain passes that, in principle, should not offer much difficulty, with a presumably sprint finish.

After the torture of the rain these last few days, the day dawned cool and damp but without precipitation, a respite for the battered physique of the riders on a stage that the peloton did not start with too much competitive spirit. This meant that the breakaway was fast, this time formed by 6 riders: Thomas Champion, Diego Pablo Sevilla, Filippo Magli, Laurenz Rex, Alexander Konychev and Veljko Stojnic.

We were prepared for a mere transition stage until, on the descent of the second pass of the day, Colla di Boasi, several riders went to the ground in a rather spectacular way in which the main victims were the INEOS-Grenadiers with Thomas, Sivakov and Tao Geoghegan, who were joined by Primoz Roglic.

Everyone got up without problems except Tao Geoghegan, who remained on the ground to the concern of his teammates. Finally, a few minutes later he was removed on a stretcher. Although the extent of his injuries has not yet been revealed, Koen Bowman's statements were worrying, saying that Tao thought, just after the crash, that he had broken his leg.

The stage continued normally, with the breakaway selecting itself and losing units in the last of the passes, the Passo della Castagnola, finally, the strongest and last survivor of the breakaway would be Laurenz Rex, who would keep the pulse with the peloton until only 6 kilometers from the conclusion thanks to the impulse of Trek-Segafredo, looking for a new victory for Mads Pedersen.

Very long straight in the last two kilometers but with a complicated curve with 500 m to go. At the exit of the corner, Trek-Segafredo launched and, with 300 m to go, Mads Pedersen made a clean start, not counting on the fact that Mark Cavendish had joined his wheel.

He easily managed to climb up the position and saw the victory very close but Paskal Ackermann had stuck to the wheel of the British and with a fleeting comeback managed to overtake him, celebrating the victory just across the line. What he did not count on was that, on the opposite side of the road, Jonathan Milan was coming back from far behind in a great sprint, leaving a few minutes in the air the resolution of the stage. Finally it was the photo finish that gave the winner to the German of UAE Team Emirates by a few centimeters.

Clasificación Stage 11 Classification

1. Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates) 5h09’02’’
2. Jonathan Milan (Bahrain-Victoriouss) +00
3. Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) +00
4. Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) +00
5. Stefano Oldani (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +00
6. Vincenzo Albanese (Eolo-Kometa) +00
7. Marius Mayrhofer (Team DSM) +00
8. Davide Ballerini (Soudal-QuickStep) +00
9. Simone Consonni (Cofidis) +00
10. Arne Marit (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty)+ 00

General Classification

1. Geraint Thomas (INEOS-Grenadiers) 44H35’35’’
2. Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) +02’’
3. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +22’’
4. Andreas Leknessund (Team DSM) +35’’
5. Damiano Caruso (Bahrain-Victorious) +01+28’’
6. Lennard Kamna (Bora-Hansgrohe) +01’52’’
7. Eddie Dunbar (Jayco-AlUla) +02’32’’
8. Thymen Arensman (INEOS-Grenadiers) +02’32’’
9. Laurens De Plus (INEOS-Grendiers) +02’36’’
10. Aurélien Paret-Peintre (AG2R Citroën) +02’48’’