CYCLING – THE 19th race day of the year’s first Grand Tour was a brutal test of strength and endurance over five climbs from Biella to Champoluc. Contained within the 166km was 4,950m of altitude gain, which all had to be conquered in immensely hot conditions.
Afonso Eulalio suffered in the middle part of the race, and had to withdraw, but by then Pello Bilbao and Antonio Tiberi were making the pace in the breakaway. The front group had taken a while to form, but once it did, Bahrain were in the thick of the action. Bilbao looked back to his best, raring to go and eager to take on whatever challenge presented itself. Tiberi kept a lower profile, stalking and probing, waiting for the right moment.
With two thirds of the stage run, Pello dropped back, and Antonio attacked in a group of seven, which was whittled down until just three remained. Behind, the peloton upped their tempo, victory was in the balance between the pink jersey group which included Damiano Caruso, and those up ahead.
A brave attack from Nicolas Prudhomme (Decathlon AG2R) stuck, and it was an impressive victory for the Frenchman, who won with a minute to spare over the top two GC riders Isaac del Toro (UAE) & Richard Carapaz (EF) who had jumped off the front of the favourites group.
Tiberi, having given his all out front under the sun since early, had fallen back to support his compatriot, and – despite riding with pain from last week’s crash – did an extraordinary job. He helped the Sicilian cross the line ahead of his closest rivals.
The 37 year old has just extended his contract with the team for another year, and proved again that he still has what it takes to compete at the very top level.
“I felt really good right from the start of the stage,” said the 37 year old afterwards. “It was a very tough stage, at very high speed. We managed the various phases of the race perfectly. In the final Antonio was decisive in positioning me for the last climb and the finish. We reached our goal that was not to lose time in GC. I feel sorry for Antonio because he lost chance to try to win the stage but there is still tomorrow. The Giro is not over yet.”
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