Giro d’Italia 2023: Pascal Ackermann edges Stage 11, Mark Cavendish third, Tao Geoghegan Hart crashes out
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Updated 17/05/2023 at 16:55 GMT
Germany’s Pascal Ackermann rounded Britain’s Mark Cavendish and held off a late surge from Italy’s Jonathan Milan to pick up his first win of the season at Tortona. But Stage 11 of the Giro d’Italia was marred by a freak crash that brought down Ineos Grenadiers duo Geraint Thomas and Tao Geoghegan Hart. Welshman Thomas recovered to retain the race lead but the 2020 champion was forced to abandon.
Ackermann wins Stage 11 by a whisker from Milan
The longest day of the Giro d’Italia was won by the finest of margins as Germany’s Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates) pipped Italy’s Jonathan Milan (Bahrain Victorious) in a photo finish in the 219km Stage 11 to Tortona.
Ackermann sprang from the wheel of Britain’s Mark Cavendish (Astana-Qazaqstan) to round Denmark’s Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) on the home straight to hold onto his first win of the season despite a late, late surge from Milan, the maglia ciclamino.
As Ackermann raised his arms aloft in celebration, Milan wagged a finger – the towering Italian perhaps suspecting he had done enough to add a second stage win in what is proving to be an impressive Grand Tour debut for the 22-year-old.
But the photo finish saw Germany’s Ackermann awarded the win by a whisker, with Cavendish showing a welcome resurgence with a competitive third place that will fill the veteran Manxman with the belief that a 19th career win on the Giro may still happen this May.
A late crash inside the final 2km split the peloton and ended the chances of many sprinters, including Fernando Gaviria (Movistar) and Australia’s Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla). Although they were both caught out on the wrong side of the split, Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) retained his slender two-second lead over Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) in the battle for the pink jersey.
In the day’s major flashpoint, both Thomas and Roglic came down in a nasty fall inside the last 50km which saw Ineos Grenadier co-leader Tao Geoghegan Hart – third place in the standings going into the stage – taken to hospital for an assessment of his injuries.
The 2020 champion was among a number of riders who went down after Italy’s Alessandro Covi (UAE Team Emirates) lost control on a slippery corner right in front of Thomas. The pink jersey was quickly back on his way alongside Roglic, who swapped bikes with Dutch team-mate Koen Bouwman.
But on a desperate day for Ineos Grenadiers, Geoghegan Hart was forced to abandon, while Frenchman Pavel Sivakov never rejoined the peloton and plummeted out of the top 10.
Portugal’s Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) rose to third place at 22 seconds, with Norway’s Andreas Leknessund (Team DSM) and Italy’s Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) completing the new-look top five.
First man to attack is last man to be caught
Belgium’s Laurenz Rex (Intermarche-Circus-Wanty) rode clear of the peloton shortly after the start at Lido di Camaiore, and was quickly joined by Thomas Champion (Cofidis), Diego Sevilla (Eolo-Kometa), Filippo Magli (Green Project-Bardiani) and Team Corratec-Selle Italia duo Alexander Konychev and Veljko Stojnic.
Comprised entirely of Giro debutants, the six-man break quickly opened up an advantage of four minutes on the coastal road – a gap which was never allowed to grow on account of the constant marshalling on the front of the pack by the teams of the sprinters, who were anxious not to see a repeat of events from Stage 10 when the escapees went the distance.
Serbia’s Stojnic was the star of the show as he swooped to a clean sweep of awards over all three of the day’s categorised climbs and in both of the intermediate sprints.
But it was the events back in the peloton on the descent of the second climb, the Colla di Boasi, which turned the race on its head and transformed what was an otherwise uneventful day into what could prove to be a key turning point in this Giro.
With rain falling once again after elusive rays of sun graced the peloton for the first few hours of the stage, Alessandro Covi (UAE Team Emirates) lost his front wheel on an innocuous bend and took out the race leader Thomas.
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Ineos still 'strongest team' despite 'gut-wrenching' Geoghegan Hart exit - Rowe
Riding alongside his GC rival, Roglic was unable to avoid hitting the deck as the domino effect also took out practically the entire Ineos train – most notably Geoghegan Hart and Sivakov.
While Thomas and Roglic were quickly on their way, Geoghegan Hart stayed on the tarmac and was soon put on a stretcher and taken to hospital, while Sivakov battled on but finished over 14 minutes back to drop 15 places to 23rd in the standings.
Boasting five riders in the top 11 entering the stage – including Geoghegan Hart just five seconds behind team-mate Thomas in third – Ineos now only have three, with Dutchman Thymen Arensman and Belgium’s Laurens de Plus up to eighth and ninth respectively.
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'Big loss' - Thomas on Geoghegan Hart exit after freak crash
A second incident just a few kilometres later saw Spain's Oscar Rodriguez (Movistar) collide with a road sign and then into the exterior of a house after he lost control on the same descent. He was unable to continue the race.
Once the main bunch regrouped ahead of the final climb, Jayco-AlUla did their best to cause some damage on the Passo della Castagnola – setting a fierce tempo as the breakaway was crumbling to pieces ahead and simultaneously blowing the peloton to smithereens. It was a tactic to play into their hands of Michael Matthews and tire out his sprint rivals ahead of the finish.
The bunch regrouped, however, and when Stojnic called it a day inside the final 20km, the only man ahead was the rider who had kicked everything off over 200km away in Camaiore.
Rex dug deep to deny the peloton for as long as possible before succumbing to the inevitable with 5km remaining. Another crash inside the final 2km caused further disruption but did not affect the main contenders for the win in the hometown of the great Fausto Coppi.
Trek-Segafredo led the remaining riders through the tight right bend ahead of the home straight before their man Pedersen launched his sprint early with Cavendish on his wheel. The British champion swooped around the Dane and looked on course for his first win for Astana – only for Ackermann to use his slipstream and power up the inside on the left-hand side of the road.
But the German had not accounted for the late surge from Milan, who came from very deep to finish the fastest of them all. Sadly for him, it was not fast enough – and Ackermann, back from an injury which marred his 2022 season, picked up his first win in 288 days, four years after his last win on the Giro.
“It's really special for me especially after my broken coccyx last year, I’m finally back,” Ackermann said. “I felt super amazing in the last days but could never really show off how strong I am. Today I got the first chance – my team-mates brought me to a good position, and I showed that we can do it. I’m super, super happy to win my first victory of the season today.”
On Milan’s near-win from nowhere, Ackermann had Cavendish to thank for his role in inadvertently guiding him to glory.
“It was a big head-crosswind so if you came from the back you could move really fast,” the German said. “I decided to do it from the front because in the last corner, you never know how slippery it is and I didn’t want to crash again. I was just happy that Cavendish was very strong and was able to do the perfect lead-out for me today.”
The Giro d’Italia continues on Thursday with the 179km Stage 12 from Bra to Rivoli – a lumpy ride that features two categorised climbs and could well play into the hands of the breakaway specialists.
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