Riis and Mørkøv lay into sprint teams after Giro stage 12 blunder

Alec Segaert claimed a brilliant stage win on Thursday by catching the remaining sprint teams off guard in the final three kilometres. The few teams left in contention had used up all their helpers with earlier work and had no one left to chase down the Belgian's attack. Bjarne Riis and Michael Mørkøv were scathing about the sprint teams afterwards.

As expected, Movistar drove a high tempo through the hilly section, causing riders like Jonathan Milan, Paul Magnier and Dylan Groenewegen to lose the group. To ensure these top sprinters could not return, EF and NSN helped the Spanish team maintain the pressure.

That is precisely where Riis spots the mistake, he told Feltet. "They got their tactics completely wrong. They failed because they used all their riders — riders who could have been there to control things at the end." An attack from someone like Segaert was hardly a major surprise. "You have to keep thinking ahead. How many riders do you still have? Do you have anyone left who can close a gap in the finale? A lot of teams simply didn't think about that," the Dane said critically.

EF came in for particular criticism. "At the moment the sprinters got dropped, they should have stayed calm," said Riis, who noted that Segaert was able to stay away because only Visma | Lease a Bike were in control in the peloton — and they had absolutely nothing to gain from chasing.

Mørkøv also identified the sprint teams' failure. "If even one of those teams had been better organised and saved a bit of energy… you could obviously have known that there were a few riders out there who could ride away in the final three kilometres." The former professional also felt the response took far too long. "If they'd been on it straight away, he would never have got away."