Andrea Vendrame burns off breakaway to solo to stage 19 victory

Sappada [Italy], May 26 : Italy's Andrea Vendrame soloed to an outstanding victory in sodden Sappada after a large breakaway went the distance in Stage 19 of the Giro d'Italia.

On the eve of the penultimate day summit showdown on Monte Grappa, Tadej Pogacar and the GC favourites played out a stalemate - and even allowed third-place Geraint Thomas back on after a late crash inside the final kilometres.

Another day of Ven-drama on the Giro ended in a victory for Andrea Vendrame of Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale after the Italian outfoxed his breakaway companions with a sumptuous attack 30km from the finish of Stage 19.

In a classy move that also included previous stage winners Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal Quick-Step), Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-EasyPost), Jhonatan Narvaez (Ineos Grenadiers) and Pelayo Sanchez (Movistar), Vendrame proved the strongest with a canny opportunistic attack on a wet descent ahead of the final climb to Sappada in north-east Italy.

A breakaway of 19 riders that was super strong but bereft of any general classification threats was allowed to build up a massive lead over the pink jersey peloton, with race leader Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) content to take things easy ahead of Saturday's showdown on Monte Grappa.

Vendrame had already long since secured the second Giro stage win of his career - three years after the first - when Britain's Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) hit the deck after a touch of wheels in the group of race favourites that still had another 5km of the 157km stage to ride.

But last year's runner-up was allowed to ride back into the fold before Pogacar and the main field soft-pedalled their way to the line, almost 16 minutes down on the day's worthy winner.

Vendrame's victory was a second for his Decathlon team following team-mate Valentin Paret-Peintre's solo exploits in Stage 10. The 29-year-old Italian pulled out all the stops, having been part of an initial 10-man breakaway which was thwarted by the peloton before Frenchman Alaphilippe's attack saw another break form during a fast and frantic opening hour of racing.

On the second of three climbs, Stage 12 winner Alaphilippe went clear with three other stage winners from this year's race - Narvaez (Stage 1), Sanchez (Stage 6) and Steinhauser (Stage 12).

But Vendrame kept his cool and fought back into contention alongside the Australian champion Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla) and Belgium's Quinten Hermans (Alpecin-Deceuninck) before making his decisive move on the descent of the Cat.2 Sella Valcalda.

"It was a nice day," Vendrame said in something of an understatement. "The important thing was to get in the breakaway, and I was there straight from the start. They all call me the joker and, in the end, I tried to do that.

"I went away on the descent and it was a good bit of business. They didn't really agree too much behind and that worked in my favour. I thought someone would come back and I just tried to keep a high, regular rhythm."

Vendrame was part of an early move that went clear after an attack from Ryan Mullen (Bora-Hansgrohe) was pounced on by the likes of Magnus Sheffield (Ineos Grenadiers) and the Visma-Lease a Bike duo of Edoardo Affini and Attila Valter.

With the advantage never getting over 30 seconds, the move was swept up just ahead of the climb into San Daniele del Friuli - best known for its delicious melt-in-the-mouth ham. Buoyed by his victory in the second week, Alaphilippe put in a big attack on the steep gradient and was joined by Vendrame, Narvaez, Hermans, Sanchez and Plapp.

Despite a spill from the Ecuadorian champion Narvaez on a corner on the descent, the leaders were able to stay out ahead before being joined by Jasper Stuyven and Edward Theuns (both Lidl-Trek), Enzo Paleni (Groupama-FDJ) and Mattia Bais (Polti-Kometa) with 100km to go.

With Steinhauser's EF Education-EasyPost missing the move, the German was soon one of nine counter-attackers - alongside team-mates Mikkel Honore and Michael Valgren - who made the connection just moments before the peloton sat up after reaching an average speed of 46.3km/h over the first two hours.

Local rider Alessandro De Marchi (Jayco-AlUla), Visma-Lease a Bike duo Jan Tratnik and Tim van Dijke, the Italian champion Simone Velasco (Astana Qazaqstan), Dries De Pooter (Intermarche-Wanty) and Manuele Tarozzi (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizane) completed the spread as the deficit of the peloton quickly grew out to five minutes.

The two groups came together with 82km remaining ahead of the first categorised climb, the tough Cat.2 Passo Duron, with a maximum gradient of 18%. Here, the cream came to the top as the four previous stage winners from this Tour edged ahead after Alaphilippe forced the first shake-up.

Plapp managed to battle back after a necessary stop to see to some stomach issues, the Australian joining forces with Vendrame and Hermans in pursuit of the leaders.

It was Alaphilippe who led the break over the summit in pole position, with Steinhauser taking the honours on the next climb of Sella Valcalda to move into second place in the KOM standings behind Pogacar - enough to secure the chance to wear the blue jersey on Saturday's Stage 20.

As the rain started to pour down and the mindset of the leaders perhaps shifted towards the final climb to Sappada, Vendrame caught his breakaway companions off-guard with an early attack on the descent with 30km remaining.

After much indecision behind, and with the Italian's gap pushing 1'30", Steinhauser eventually kicked clear in pursuit with 10km remaining before being joined by Sanchez. The Spaniard then pushed on after the steepest part of the Cima Sappada climb - but it was too little, too late.

Vendrame maintained an advantage of over a minute to the top of the climb and then kept a steady head on the flat run towards the finish - something that could not be said of Thomas, around a quarter of an hour later, who hit the deck after turning round and clipping the back wheel of Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious).

With Vendrame by now celebrating his win ahead of Sanchez, Steinhauser, Narvaez, Plapp and the remnants of the break, the GC group eased up to allow Thomas back on. They then rode together to the finish - putting their GC battle on hold until Saturday's 184km Stage 20, which concludes with a double ascent of Monte Grappa near the Slovenian border.

"It shows that everyone has respect for everyone," Pogacar said of the crash that saw his Welsh rival hit the deck. "Nobody wanted to pass Thomas in that kind of way. It's unfortunate - after a long day going in control and there's a stupid moment in the end. But I hope he's okay and we can have a great show tomorrow."

Asked whether he was targeting a sixth stage win to sign off in style on Saturday, the 25-year-old said: "If we have a chance, yes. Today we were really conservative with the team, no one used up too much energy.

"Tomorrow is the last day of this Giro for us climbers and there's going to be a lot of Slovenian flags. Already today it was nice to see everybody and it's going to be a nice stage - for us, for the three Slovenians left. Let's see how it goes. Of course, the best win is to arrive solo. Maybe tomorrow someone will be stronger than me, but we will try."

As there were no changes in the general classification, Pogacar will start the penultimate stage with a lead of 7'42" over Colombian Dani Martinez (Bora-Hansgrohe). Despite his "stupid little mistake", Thomas retained his third place, 22 seconds further back.

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