Garmin-Cervélo’s David Millar tried to surprise the sprinters with a late-stage attack that fell 1km short in the 10th stage at the Giro d’Italia on Tuesday, ending instead in a bunch sprint.
Millar put down a surprise attack with just under 3km to go, catching the sprinter teams off-guard with a daring solo move. The Scot put his time trial skills to good use and quickly opened up a promising gap, turning a huge gear and hitting 60kph. The sprinter teams, however, were determined to set up their fast men and he was caught with one kilometer to go. Mark Cavendish won the stage and Alberto Contador retained the pink jersey.
Millar’s attack highlighted the action for Garmin-Cervélo that ended with Christophe Le-Mével retaining his third-place overall at 1:19 back. Le-Mével finished safely in the pack Tuesday in 21st spot to lead the team home to Teramo.
“It was a quiet day for the boys. We had Millar try in the end. It was a nice try and it was also meant to try to create a little bit of chaos in the bunch and open up some space for Murilo (Fischer) for the sprint. Murilo was there, but he was blocked by someone in the bunch and couldn’t make his sprint as he would have liked,” said Garmin-Cervélo sport director Lionel Marie. “It was a good day for Christophe. The team rode well to protect him and everyone is feeling good for the coming days.”
Matt Wilson made it through the stage after his hard crash in Saturday’s stage. Marie said the Aussie has a minor infection, but is hopeful to survive Wednesday’s hilly stage to stay in the race going into the mountains waiting in the north.
“Matt has a small infection. We hope he can pass through tomorrow’s stage because he’s a good teammate and we don’t want to lose him,” Marie said. “If he can get through tomorrow, then Thursday is a little bit easier. We are hopeful.”
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