Cycling: Solo triumph for Denz at the Giro – “the most emotional victory”

Nico Denz distributed hand kisses and spread his arms. The 31-year-old took care of the first German stage victory in the 108th Giro d’Italia. After 144 kilometers from Morbegno to Cesano Maderno, Denz won alone. He also reconciled his Red Bull team for a disappointing tour of Italy after leaving the two ex-winners and co-favorites Primoz Roglic (Slovenia) and Jai Hindley (Australia).

“This is perhaps the most emotional victory after we lost Jai and Primoz. We all had this big goal in winning the Giro with Primoz Roglic,” said Denz and added: “We were in the altitude training camp for two months. If you lose a leader like Primoz, we also burst a dream. Created the turnaround and motivated ourselves. “

Denz set out from an eleven -headed group of elevators 18 kilometers before the finish line and ended up with a 61 -second lead over the Italian Mirco Maesti and Belgian Edward Planckaert. “I followed my instinct. It was not well worked in the group. I put everything on one card,” added Denz, for whom it was already the third Giro depending victory of his career. In 2023 he had celebrated two successes. Georg Steinhauser had taken care of the last German Giro-Stappen victory in the previous year.

A day in the outlier group

Denz had settled out of the main field early with a large group. A first selection occurred a good 33 kilometers before the finish line when, among other things, the sprint -strong classic specialists Mads Pedersen (Denmark) and Wout van Aert (Belgium) had been left behind.

“It was not just a victory of the legs, but a victory of the head. He is a super-horny guy, he deserves that,” praised ex-Roubaix champion John Degenkolb at Eurosport.

Favorites protect strength for the mountains

The favorites for the overall victory took a quieter day before the heavy mountain stages and reached the goal with almost 14 minutes behind. The Mexican Isaac del Toro is still 41 seconds ahead of ex-winner Richard Carapaz from Ecuador. The overall third is the Briton Simon Yates with a gap of 51 seconds.

The next exchange of blows will come in the mountains on Friday. On the 19th stage over 166 kilometers from Biella to Champoluc, three mountains of the first category and a total of around 5000 meters of altitude await. All eyes are then focused on the first 21 year old del Toro. After the youngster lost one and a half minutes on Tuesday, he showed comeback qualities on Wednesday with his first stage win.