Giulio Ciccone claimed the 15th victory of the season for Lidl-Trek in an uphill sprint battle between climbers. The stage, starting and finishing in San Lorenzo Dorsino, was perfect on paper for the Italian – a first category mountain punctuated a hilly stage, which finished with a three-kilometer climb to the finish. It was also the most challenging stage of the race, although the parcours did not prove difficult enough to make a real selection.
Cicco launched an attack shortly before cresting the penultimate climb of Passo Durone, however it wasn’t enough to break away from the group of favorites. In the end, it came down some savvy positioning by Ciccone ahead of the sprint, and a powerful kick to the line which earned the Italian his first victory in close to two years. Cicco celebrated in trademark fashion, tossing his 100% sunglasses to the cheering crowd in a moment of passion. His victory comes after a successful Lidl-Trek altitude training camp, and is a clear indication that Ciccone is in excellent form ahead of the Giro d’Italia.
Giulio Ciccone: “I think we did a great job today, I really need to say thanks to all my teammates. We had a plan and I think we did it in the perfect way. Honestly it was a long time without victory for me and I really needed it today. I think it’s even more special being in Italy in this race that I really like. After a long time at altitude it’s always nice to restart the racing with a victory. It was honestly really hard. We went super-fast from the start, and the parcours was hard. I’m really happy.”
STAGE 1 (San Lorenzo Dorsino – San Lorenzo Dorsino, 148,5 Km) – STAGE CLASSIFICATION
- Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek)
- Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale)
- Paul Seixas (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale)
- Romain Bardet (Team Picnic PostNL)
- Florian Stork (Tudor Pro Cycling)
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION
- Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek)
- Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +0:04
- Paul Seixas (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +0:06
