Carapaz special at Giro after Aussie breakway bid fails
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 percent.
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.
🎙️ "It's been nearly a year since my last win, it's very special, i'm very emotional." - 🏆 🇪🇨 @RichardCarapazM (EFE)#GirodItalia pic.twitter.com/Igvre9Reqk— Giro d'Italia (@giroditalia) May 21, 2025
Then the Ecuadorian grand tour thoroughbred Carapaz stole the show in familiar fashion, 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 champ Carapaz's victory has reminded everyone that the man who was winning his first Giro stage since taking the overall race victory in 2019 is still a real threat at just 1:56 behind in sixth place.
❌ No more breakaway as 🇪🇨 @RichardCarapazM goes on the attack!! The former Olympic Champ now has a 30" lead on the group behind #GirodItalia pic.twitter.com/82DbGUHEtN— Giro d'Italia (@giroditalia) May 21, 2025
The 31-year-old Carapaz hadn't won in 308 days, since victory in last year's Tour de France last year.
"It's been a long time," he said. "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.
Another Aussie cycling great Robbie McEwen reported on Eurosport: "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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