Nico Denz got his second stage win at the 106th Giro d’Italia with an energetic performance. On Saturday, the 29-year-old won the sprint of a breakaway group on the 14th stage after 194 kilometers from Sierre to Cassano Magnago, just ahead of Canadian Derek Gee, Italian Alberto Bettiol and French Bruno Armirail.
Denz only won the twelfth stage in Rivoli on Thursday – also as a breakaway. Overall, it was the third German day victory at this year’s Tour of Italy. “That’s crazy. I don’t understand at the moment what is happening. It must be a dream,” said Denz after his latest coup: “I went all or nothing. I didn’t want to finish fourth.”
In the last two kilometers, Denz almost alone was 14 seconds behind the three leaders before he then had the greatest staying power in the sprint. But he paid tribute to the entire chasing group: “We put in a lot of effort to come back over the last ten kilometers, everyone gave it their all.”
Breakaway Armirail drives into the pink jersey
The contenders for the overall victory, former Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas and German hopeful Lennard Kämna, took it easy and finished more than 21 minutes behind. As a result, Frenchman Bruno Armirail, who was one of the breakaways, took over the pink jersey.
The change in leadership should come in handy for Thomas, so his Ineos team has to do less management work. Armirail is likely to lose the Maglia Rosa again on the difficult mountain stages at the latest. Otherwise, nothing changed in the distances among the favorites. Kämna is seventh in the overall standings, now 3:33 minutes behind in the race for the pink jersey.
On Sunday, the Giro continues with the 15th stage from Seregno to Bergamo over 195 kilometers. Three climbs in the second category and one climb in the first category await the drivers.
