Richard Carapaz wins stage 11 of the Giro d'Italia, update on Jai Hindley injury
Luke Plapp's bid in a breakaway to earn his second win at the Giro d'Italia has fallen short as former champion Richard Carapaz announced himself as a contender for the 2025 crown with a terrific late burst to capture the stage 11 honours.
Australian time trial champ Plapp, still on a high after his terrific solo victory on Saturday's eighth stage, was this time at the heart of Wednesday's five-man breakaway that looked set to contest the stage win after battling across the fiendish Alpe San Pellegrino climb with gradients of around 20 per cent.
That was before points leader Mads Pedersen shook the sleeping peloton into life, leading a riveting pursuit and enabling them to catch the quintet on the final slopes of the third arduous climb of the challenging 186km route, from Viareggio to Castelnovo ne' Monti.
Then the Ecuadorian grand tour thoroughbred Carapaz familiarly stole the show, powering away over the last nine kilometres after an explosive surge to take a solo victory by 10 seconds from the race leader Isaac del Toro, who won a sprint to the line for second to pad out his overall advantage with bonus seconds.
The young Mexican del Toro is now 31 seconds ahead of his UAE Team Emirates colleague Juan Ayuso at the head of the general classification. The rest of the main GC contenders came home safely, with Primoz Roglic fifth, 1:24 behind, and top Australian hope Michael Storer 14th at 3:20 down.
But former Olympic champion Carapaz's victory reminded everyone that he is still a real threat at just 1:56 behind in sixth place.
"So this is very, very special for me, and extremely exciting as well, great work.
"And I want to dedicate it to my family and to my son. It's his birthday today."
There was good news about the recovery of Jai Hindley, the 2022 Giro champion, who was forced to abandon after a crash on stage six.
Aussie cycling great Robbie McEwen reported on Euros-port: "Jai had a light concussion, but he's feeling okay.
"He told me his injury is to a transverse process (one of the bony projections by the side of a vertebra) and he's got a very sore back, but he hopes to be back on the horse ASAP."
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Spalletti was informed ahead of Monday night's game in Reggio Emilia that he would be losing his job as Italy coach in the wake of the team's 3-0 loss in Norway last week, which marked a dreadful way to begin their qualifying campaign for the 2026 World Cup. Goals by Giacomo Raspadiro and Andrea Cambiaso meant Spalletti at least departed with a victory. Yet the Azzurri remained in a perilous position in Group I, with Norway beating Estonia 1-0 — thanks to Erling Haaland's 62nd-minute goal — to make it four wins from four halfway through qualifying. Italy stay nine points behind Norway — albeit having played two fewer matches — and might have missed a good chance to rack up some goals to boost their goal difference. Only the top team from each of the 12 groups qualify automatically for next year's expanded 48-team tournament in North America. The runners-up go into the playoffs — the stage where Italy were eliminated by Sweden and North Macedonia to miss out on the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, respectively, in a humiliation for one of Europe's traditional powers. "We are the first to know it wasn't a great game, we wanted to give the coach a better send-off," Cambiaso said. "We are professionals, unfortunately these things happen in sport. Spalletti is a great coach, has such passion for the sport, and every time a coach is fired, it hurts the players. We feel really sad." In Brussels, Belgium were heading for a second straight draw to open qualifying until Kevin De Bruyne struck late at King Baudouin Stadium to consign rejuvenated Wales to a first defeat under Craig Bellamy in his 10 matches in charge. Four days after being held by North Macedonia, Belgium sped ahead 3-0 inside the first half hour through goals by Romelu Lukaku, Youri Tielemans and Jeremy Doku. 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