After a three-day stay in Hungary and a travel day, Italy greeted the riders with a mountain finish in Sicily, featuring a final climb up Mount Etna. Following several unsuccessful attempts, a 14-man break with Lennard Kämna eventually went clear and extended its lead to more than 11 minutes at one point. On the final climb up to Etna, S. Oldani distanced himself from the leading group, followed 15km later by J. López. With about 6km remaining, Lennard attacked out of the current 3-man chase group and dropped his fellow breakaway companions. With about two and a half kilometres to go, he managed to catch up with López at the front and the duo tackled the final kilometres together. In the end, Lennard prevailed in a two-man sprint and took the stage win. With this he also assumes the lead in the mountains classification and is currently second overall. GC riders Wilco Kelderman, Jai Hindley and Emanuel Buchmann also put in a strong performance and finished the stage in the 16-man group of favourites.
Result
01 L. Kämna 4:32:11
02 J. López +0:00
03 R. Taaramäe +0:34
15 J. Hindley +2:37
17 W. Kelderman +2:37
21 E. Buchmann +2:37
From the Finish Line
"That was a super hard day, especially the final climb. I almost thought I lost the chance to win the day when I heard that López was 35 seconds ahead. But I was ultimately able to catch up. Then I tried to recover a bit for the sprint and that ended up being a good plan. To have this victory in the bag is particularly important for our team and takes some of the pressure off. Everything went well for us and we’re on the right track. I’ve now also taken the lead in the mountain classification, the first classification jersey I've worn in my career and I'm very proud to have done that." - Lennard Kämna
"This morning we discussed that the stage could go in two directions: either the GC teams control the stage well, or a big breakaway group will be allowed to go clear. If a big group went, we wanted to be represented by Lennard, who is in good shape. He ultimately put in an incredible performance and managed his forces well. At the beginning he saved his energy and then went full throttle. We’re very happy to have won a stage and the morale in the team is really high. Our GC riders were also able to reach the finish in a group of about 20 riders and thereby stayed together with the other GC riders. So it was a good team performance from that perspective as well." - Enrico Gasparotto, Sports Director