Asgreen wins crash-marred Giro stage: Roglic and Ayuso lose time, Ciccone and Tiberi lose even more

After three days in Albania and ten stages through Italy, the peloton headed toward Slovenia. The stage started in Treviso and was one of the flattest of this Giro, though a few small climbs featured in the final. The Giro had finished in Nova Gorica before, when Victor Campenaerts beat Oscar Riesebeek. This time, the stage was much easier on paper, so a bunch sprint was expected. A final short climb could complicate things. Would we see another showdown between Mads Pedersen and Wout van Aert?

Surprisingly, there was a fierce fight to get into the break for such a flat stage. Riders like Taco van der Hoorn (Intermarché-Wanty) and Van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) were in the mix, and they briefly got away with a group of nine. But the peloton didn’t let them go, and the gap was closed. Later, five other riders succeeded: Kasper Asgreen (EF Education-EasyPost) and Mirco Maestri (Polti-VisitMalta) attacked, joined shortly after by Martin Marcellusi (Bardiani), Clément Davy (Groupama-FDJ), and Louis Meintjes (Intermarché-Wanty). The South African dropped back quickly, leaving four men in front.

That group of four was never given much space. Visma | Lease a Bike and Alpecin–Deceuninck took control early on, limiting the breakaway’s lead to about two minutes. It looked like we were going to get an uneventful stage. A few rain showers passed through, but nothing major at first. A bit of tension arose during an intermediate sprint when Dries De Bondt (Decathlon AG2R) and Van der Hoorn attacked again, but nothing came of it.

The showers returned, some heavier than others. It was soaking wet at times, but then the sun would come out again. The weather was unpredictable, but the break kept pushing, though their gap stayed small. During another intermediate sprint, Pedersen managed to grab a point behind the leaders. After that, all eyes turned to the finale, where the first real climbing began.

As the riders neared the Italian–Slovenian border, they encountered the first climb. At the summit, the peloton crossed into Slovenia — and the calm day ended. Nervous energy spread through the bunch, driven by the terrain and especially the worsening weather. Dark clouds loomed again, and rain was inevitable. The pace surged, and the 1:30 lead of the breakaway suddenly looked tiny.

INEOS Grenadiers, Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, and Visma | Lease a Bike moved to the front, trying to stay out of trouble. The expected rain hit during the descent from the Medina climb, but thankfully no major crashes occurred. Everyone made it safely to the local circuit in Nova Gorica, where they’d pass the finish twice and climb to Saver twice.

It was a nervous run-in. Narrow roads and slippery cobbles awaited in town. A crash turned out to be inevitable: Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) went down and took nearly the entire Lidl-Trek team with him. Among them were Mathias Vacek, Daan Hoole, and Mads Pedersen. But it was Giulio Ciccone, the team leader, who came off worst. He tried to continue, had to stop, but eventually got back on the bike. His right knee was clearly bothering him, and any GC hopes were gone.

The crash split the peloton. Visma | Lease a Bike had all their key riders up front, including Olav Kooij. Also in the lead group were Kaden Groves, Isaac Del Toro, Tom Pidcock, Richard Carapaz, and Derek Gee. But Juan Ayuso, Primoz Roglic, and Egan Bernal lost time. The GC was shaken up. They were stuck in a second group, about 40 seconds behind the group containing the pink jersey. Antonio Tiberi, who had also crashed, was even further back — riding nearly 50 seconds behind them.

Up front, Groves and Kooij had a golden opportunity to go for the win. Their teams drove the pace brutally high. Kooij struggled but managed to hang on through the last climb up Saver. The Roglic group began to close the gap, but never quite got there. Meanwhile, Asgreen, Marcellusi, and Maestri still had a slim lead — about 15 seconds over the pink jersey group. But the domestiques were running out of steam.

Asgreen had been the strongest of the break all day, and on the final climb, he dropped his Italian companions. It became Asgreen vs. Van Aert, with the Belgian doing nearly all the chasing. When he gave up, the path was clear for the EF Education rider. Yates was left pacing for Kooij, but Carapaz disrupted the chase brilliantly. That sealed it: Asgreen powered to a spectacular solo win. Kooij was beaten by Groves in the sprint, 16 seconds behind. Roglic and company finished at 1:04. Tiberi lost two full minutes.