Haga seizes a surprise win while Carapaz claims the pink jersey – VeloNews.com

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Chad Haga (Sunweb) won his first stage of the closing Giro Closing Time Trial in Verona, saving something for his team after Tom Dumoulin's early exit. Victor Campenaerts and Thomas De Gendt (both Lotto-Soudal) finished second and third on the stage respectively.

Richard Carapaz (Movistar) is assured the pink jersey, finishing 36th of the special. His victory is the second victory ever won by a Latin American in the Giro d'Italia.

Vincenzo Nibali signed a good time on the stage to finish ninth. However, it was not enough to reverse his 1:54 deficit against Ecuador, leaving the Bahrain-Merida man second.

As expected, Primoz Roglic took third place in Mikel Landa's final race classification, finishing 31 seconds over the Basque rider to leave him 8 seconds ahead of him in the overall standings.

"I thought about my father and my wife, I thought Roglic had to be tired," Haga said. "The way my legs felt yesterday, I thought I could win today, I had to do it and I was right."

"My victory is a consolation prize and a way to redeem our Giro," he continued. "We came here fit to support Tom [Dumoulin]but unfortunately he was forced to leave. Our Giro was not finished, we took our shape and our legs and tried to change it in another way. I am happy to be able to take advantage of it. "

The 17-kilometer course around Verona was dominated by a long climb halfway up the Via Torricelle 4.5 km, at about 4%, a slope deep enough to allow riders to stay in their longest position. is.

Campanaerts was one of the beginners and set the benchmark time of 22:11, averaging 46.0 km / h.

It did not take long for Haga to take the place of the Belgian in the hot seat with a time of 22:07; four seconds faster than Campanaerts with an average speed of 46.1 km / h. Although the American spent six seconds on Campanaerts at the intermediate check, he held firm and finished. The American was aiming the stage and was trying to save his legs as much as possible during the final stages in the mountains.

De Gendt was also absent early in the day and clocked a time of 22:13, just six seconds behind Haga, placing third in the standings. Bob Jungels (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) was an outside contender for the stage. However, after a disappointing second half of the Giro, he managed only one time to place tentatively in 10th place, finishing 17th from the stage.

By the time Roglic was leaving, it seemed like he was the only rider still able to get Haga out of the checkpoint. In addition to the race to the stage, Roglic was looking for the overall podium. It took 23 seconds for Landa to return to third place overall, after eliminating him the day before on the 20th stage. always on Landa and very far from the time fixed by Haga. Although he finished the stage only in tenth place, he did enough to take third place on GC, beating Landa's time by 31 seconds.

"It was a difficult Giro," Roglic said. "I think we can be proud. I think everyone wanted to win. The way this has ended for me can be like a victory for me. "

Nibali was next, and although he signed an impressive time to finish ninth of the stage, it was not enough to reshape the 1:54 deficit he had to catch up at Carapaz. The Ecuadorian finished the stage at 1:12 on Haga, which earned him 36th place, but more importantly, he was only 49 seconds slower than Nibali, which means that his pink jersey was safe.

In the other jersey rankings, Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) did enough to secure the white jersey to the young riders, Pascal Ackermann (Bora-Hansgrohe) won the Ciclamino jersey for the points classification and Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) got the blue KoM swimsuit, having held it for each stage of the race, one.

Max Sciandri, Movistar's sports director, said of Carapaz: "He is an incredible leader who has won huge victories – won two stages – in the jersey, so we are very happy."