Giro d'Italia stage 11: Pascal Ackermann sprints to narrow win

Pascal Ackermann (UAE-Team Emirates) roared to his first win of 2023 on today’s 11th stage of the Giro d’Italia.

The big German took the stage by a tyre-width ahead of Jonathan Milan (Bahrain-Victorious), who came out of nowhere in the last few hundred metres to finish second. Mark Cavendish (Astana) rounded out the day’s podium in third after starting his sprint strong but fading in the last 50m.

“I'm finally back. This is very special to me. I actually felt really good the last few days, but I could never show it. Now it was the first time someone could put me in a good position,” said Ackermann after the stage.

“We had a tailwind in the final straight so if you came from behind you could come very fast. I'm glad Cavendish was really strong, he actually gave me a really good lead-out.”

At 218.5km in length, today’s stage was the longest of this year’s race. While there were a handful of climbs on the menu it was ultimately a day for the sprinters, with their teams keeping a six-rider breakaway on a tight leash as they made their way towards the finish in Tortona.

At 6km to go the last remaining rider from the early breakaway, Laurenz Rex (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty), was swallowed up by the bunch.

Trek-Segafredo led into the final kilometre and dropped their star Mads Pedersen off in the perfect position with 250m to go. The Dane opened up the sprint and was followed closely by Cavendish.

The line fell a little too late for both of them, however, and they faded in the last 50m, allowing Ackermann and Milan to come surging past. Milan finished faster than Ackermann, but it was the German who ultimately crossed the line first.

Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers), the race leader, finished safely in the peloton behind and in doing so successfully defended his slim, two-second advantage over Primož Roglič in GC.

Thomas’ teammate Tao Geoghegan Hart was brought down in a nasty crash midway through today’s stage and abandoned shortly after. His withdrawal means that João Almeida (UAE-Team Emirates) has moved up to third. He trails Thomas by 22 seconds.