Giro d'Italia Stage 11: Narváez Hat-Trick, Vingegaard Back in Control

Jhonatan Narváez picked off Enric Mas to deliver the hat-trick in a textbook breakaway victory in stage 11 at the Giro d’Italia on Wednesday as pre-race favorite Jonas Vingegaard shrugged off any troubles.

The UAE Emirates-XRG all-rounder pulled clear with Movistar’s Mas on the day’s final climb of a stacked up 195km transition stage from Porcari and Chiavari.

The Ecuadorian made easy work of the Spanish rider to win for the third time in this Giro and give his injury-plagued UAE something to cheer about.

“The whole stage was difficult, especially because we missed the first breakaway group, then we missed the second one too. After two hours of hard racing I tried to jump straight to the breakaway,” Narváez said. “I realized that Enric Mas was the strongest in the climb. I knew I had to play my game. I defended myself up the hills. I got scared when he launched the sprint and almost blocked me to the barriers. I was on the limit because it was full gas the whole day.”

Overnight leader Afonso Eulálio defended pink and Vingegaard brushed aside any hint of a hangover following Tuesday’s somewhat flat individual time trial by finishing safely in the GC group.

Transition in the Italian sun

The rollercoaster stage along a string of narrow climbs above Italy’s Cinque Terre eventually saw a group of 17 extract themselves to hunt for the stage.

Fine spring weather welcomed the peloton for a tricky transition stage that had breakaway written all over it.

Narváez initially missed the first wave of moves, but UAE’s Mikkel Bjerg and António Morgado drove the pursuit before Narváez finally bridged across on the Passo del Termine with about 80km to go.

The technical roads triggered some crashes. Davide Ballerini (Astana), a winner earlier in this Giro, crashed out. Martin Tjotta (Uno-X) and Edward Planckaert (Alpecin-Premier Tech) also did not finish. Another trio of riders crashed out of the day’s main break, but they could push on.

The profile got more challenging as it pushed toward the line.

The lead group shrank to five, then Mas and Narváez pulled clear on the final climb with 12km to go. The peloton was 3 minutes off the back, so the win was up for grabs.

Eulálio rolled in with the front group for another day in pink.

“It was a big fight for the breakaway. It took a long time before a group went and my team did a perfect job like the other days. I just had to eat and drink and follow,” he said. “Every morning, I enjoy seeing the stuffed toy wolf [a daily award for the race leader] at the front of the bus and to put the maglia rosa on before the start of the race.”

With no major climbs until this weekend, he might be able to keep it for a few more days.

Vingegaard back in control

All eyes were pre-race favorite Vingegaard.

There were some rumors going around the paddock that the Dane was ill or somehow off his best.

Tuesday’s monster individual time trial, the longest in a decade in the Giro, saw Vingegaard struggle against the specialists on the long, flat course.

Some expected him to crush his GC rivals, but a few even clawed back some time on the Visma star, raising some doubts about his condition.

Vingegaard shrugged off those concerns, at least publicly, and rode at the nose of the main GC group across the stage.

“I wouldn’t say that anyone tried to test me, I think the pace was more to defend,” Vinegaard said. “It ended up being quite a hard stage, and with a profile like this, you could expect it.

“The climbs in the finale still made it a tough stage,” Vingegaard. “As a team, we stayed alert in the peloton and reached the finish without any problems. My feeling on the bike was good today, and that’s positive with the tough stages that are still to come in the next few days.”

There were no major shakeups at the top of the GC leaderboard.

The 109th Giro continues Thursday with the 175km 12th stage from Imperia to Novi Ligure. Two Cat. 3 climbs in the back half of the profile should set up a tug-of-war between a breakaway and the sprinters.

Giro d’Italia stage 11 results