V. Paret-Peintre disrupts bold dreams of Dutch teams after fiercely contested Giro mountain stage

After a well-deserved rest day on Monday, the peloton set out again on Tuesday for a relatively short but explosive mountain stage. However, four riders did not start: Olav Kooij (Visma | Lease a Bike), Max Kanter (Astana Qazaqstan Team), Ethan Vernon (Israel-Premier Tech) and Marius Mayrhofer (Tudor) were too ill to continue racing.

These four sprinters had been hopeful about their upcoming chances, as the second week of the Giro still held opportunities for fast riders like them. Visma | Lease a Bike also lost the man who had secured them a stage victory in Naples on Sunday, while Israel-Premier Tech was left with just four riders for the remainder of the race following Vernon's withdrawal.

Nevertheless, the race went on. First up after the start was a flat section, where three men quickly took the lead. Alessandro de Marchi (Jayco AlUla), Simon Clarke (Israel-Premier Tech) and Quinten Hermans (Alpecin-Deceuninck) teamed up, but the action never slowed down behind them. Their maximum lead was one minute, but it was continually reduced.

The peloton was frantic for the first fifty kilometers of the stage. Hermans realized the futility of his effort and was smart enough to drop back during a sprint located on a small hill, allowing sprinter Kaden Groves to score some points there. Jonathan Milan, in the purple jersey, also made an attempt but couldn't sustain it.

Following this sprint, there was a rapid two-kilometer climb at eight percent gradient, which really heated things up. This time, it wasn’t the flatland riders like Filippo Ganna (INEOS) and Edoardo Affini (Visma | Lease a Bike) going for it, but better climbers such as Bardet and Juan Pedro López (Lidl-Trek).

UAE-Team Emirates had been holding back until then, but they applied significant pressure once on the climb. This made it challenging for the attackers to stay ahead, although De Marchi and Clarke managed to do so surprisingly well. In the descent, UAE decided to relax their efforts, partly to avoid risks.

This allowed a huge group in pursuit, primarily including Bardet and López, to have room. López also narrowly escaped a severe crash after a labrador suddenly ran into the group but fortunately did not cause an accident. As they gained a two to three-minute lead, Clarke and De Marchi also dropped back. De Marchi was then able to assist Filippo Zana, the highest-ranked rider in the lead group. Also present was Simon Geschke of Cofidis, who secured mountain points on the first climb.

Were there more? Tobias Foss (INEOS), Nicola Conci (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Simone Velasco (Astana Qazaqstan Team), Max Schachmann (BORA-hansgrohe), Valentin and Aurélien Paret-Peintre (Decathlon AG2R), Esteban Chaves (EF), Enzo Paleni (Groupama-FDJ), Marco Frigo (Israel-Premier Tech), Andrea Bagioli (Lidl-Trek), Will Barta (Movistar), Julian Alaphilippe, Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal Quick-Step), Chris Hamilton, Kevin Vermaerke (dsm-firmenich PostNL), Mattia Bais (Polti-Kometa), Tratnik (Visma | Lease a Bike), Domenico Pozzovivo, Luca Covilli, Filippo Fiorelli (VF Group-Bardiani) and Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) were all in the mix, making it a robust qualitative and quantitative group.

Alaphilippe was notably the first to drop back after a visit to the medical car, which meant he was rather painfully caught by Juan Sebastian Molano and Rui Oliveira of UAE-Team Emirates. Meanwhile, the early attack by Tratnik had stirred up the field. A small group with A. Paret-Peintre, Bardet, Bagioli and Frigo then broke away from the remaining escapees.

Then it began to rain, but Bahrain Victorious was nervous about Bardet's lead. They placed their strong riders at the front to reduce his six-minute lead. Later, INEOS Grenadiers also started to involve their strong riders in the chase.

Tratnik continued to push hard, making life difficult for Bardet and others. This urged Paret-Peintre and his compatriot to speed up behind the Visma | Lease a Bike leader. By the ten-kilometer mark, Tratnik still had a 45-second lead, while the peloton trailed by more than five minutes.

Further ahead, at the five-kilometer mark, the situation remained the same for Tratnik, allowing him to increasingly think about the stage win. The Slovenian powerhouse gritted his teeth and valiantly resisted the French pursuers, with Paret-Peintre notably leaving his older companion behind and moving forward three kilometers from the finish. This marked the end for Tratnik, and to a lesser extent for Bardet.