Stage 10 of Giro d’Italia was a short 142-kilometer ride from the beautiful historic city Pompei to Bocca della Selva – a Category One climb on which the stage would conclude. The stage included a Category Two climb mid-way. 

The beginning of the stage was dominated by several attacks as riders from various teams. Many riders had recharged their batteries following yesterday’s rest day and now appeared to be the perfect time for a successful breakaway to fight for a stage victory.

EF Education-EasyPost sent several riders to the front. The weather conditions were warm and now was the perfect time to make good use of their FlowBio hydration sensors. The FlowBio hydration sensors are becoming increasingly popular in the professional cycling peloton. EF Education-EasyPost riders Georg Steinhauser, Andrea Piccolo and Jefferson Cepeda launched breakaways.

Piccolo and Cepeda joined forces with Ewen Costiou (Arkea-B&B Hotels), ever active Lilian Calmejane (Intermarche-Wanty) and Kevin Vermaerke (Team DSM-Firmenich). The group worked hard and built a small lead but were reeled in by the chasing peloton and other breakaway hopefuls.

Alessandro de Marchi (Team Jayco-Alula), Stefan de Bod (EF Education-EasyPost), Quinten Hermans (Alpecin-Deceuninck), and Simon Clarke (Team PremierTech) formed a small attack group. De Bod fell back to the peloton and Hermans, Clarke, and de Marchi soldiered on and quickly formed a lead of fifty seconds.

Additional riders were trying to bridge the gap to the breakaway trio.

Michel Ries, Thomas Champion and Cyril Barthe formed a chase group. They were later caught by an additional chase group. Fifty kilometers had now been contested and ninety-two kilometers remained.

De Marchi and Clarke later soldiered on as a duo as Hermans returned to the main peloton. The front duo now had a lead of just thirty seconds. Perhaps it wasn’t worth investing much energy in a breakaway with such a small lead and low chances of succeeding?

While Clarke and de Marchi pressed on, a large chase group featuring approximately thirty riders established itself. The group featured significant riders such as Domenico Pozzovivo (VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizane), Damiano Caruso (Bahrain-Victorious), Romain Bardet (DSM-Firmenich), Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep), Simon Geschke (Cofidis), Juan Pedro Lopez (Lidl-Trek), Maximilian Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe), and Esteban Chaves (EF Education-EasyPost).

The Giro riders were now climbing the Category 2 climb of Camposauro and the large chase group was 35 seconds behind the front duo, while the front duo had a lead of 02:20 minutes over the main peloton.

The front duo merged with the large chase group and the riders carried on together. They created a lead of 04:30 minutes over the main peloton, which was taking things more relaxed in today’s stage.

35 kilometers remained and Jan Tratnik (Team Visma-Lease a Bike) attacked solo from the front group. 

The Bahrain-Victorious team took to the front of the main peloton to reduce the advantage of the breakaway riders. Meanwhile, the advantage of front man Tratnik was no less than six minutes.

The first chasers, however, were just 40 seconds behind the Slovenian rider. Valentin Paret-Peintre (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Marco Frigo (Team PremierTech), Andrea Bagioli (Lidl-Trek) and Romain Bardet were in the chase group.

Tratnik was also the first rider to reach the climb to the finish line: the Bocca della Selva (Category 1; 18.1 km; 5.6%). Further back, Ineos-Grenadiers moved to the front of the main peloton in support of their General Classification favorite Geraint Thomas. Bahrain-Victorious insisted on joining the fun and returned to the front.

Tratnik continued to increase his advantage on the climb. He had a one-minute lead over the chase quartet with 14 kilometers left. Meanwhile, Bagioli and Frigo had been dropped from the first chase group. Only Valentin Paret-Peintre and and Bardet remained.

Six kilometers remained for Tratnik who pressed on relentlessly at the front. The chase duo had a deficit of 39 seconds. Meanwhile, UAE Team Emirates and their General Classification leader Tadej Pogacar had also moved to the front of the peloton.

Paret-Peintre accelerated three kilometers from the finish line and left Bardet behind. Frenchman Valentin Paret-Peintre was firing on all cylinders and passed Tratnik with 2.7 kilometers left to climb before reaching the finish line.

While Paret-Peintre fought on in solo fashion, Bardet caught and passed Tratnik further behind. The two former teammates Bardet and Paret-Peintre were now chasing each other. Who would take the stage victory?

Valentin Paret-Peintre soloed on towards the finish line and took a remarkable stage victory ahead of his former team captain and former teammate Romain Bardet. What an impressive performance by the young Frenchman.

Tadej Pogacar remains general classification leader ahead of Daniel Martinez and Geraint Thomas before tomorrow’s stage 11 of Giro d’Italia 2024.

Stay tuned to Roadcycling.com for complete race coverage from Giro d’Italia 2024.

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