Giro d'Italia - Thomas ahead of overall Giro victory - Kämna falls back slightly

Professional cyclist Geraint Thomas can hope for his first triumph in the Giro d'Italia after the big battle in the Dolomites, while Lennard Kämna slipped to eighth place overall.

On the queen stage of the 106th Tour of Italy, which was won by the Colombian breakaway rider Santiago Buitrago, the former Tour de France champion Thomas fended off all attacks on the extremely difficult climb up to the Three Peaks. He finished three seconds behind his rival Primoz Roglic in fifth place at an altitude of 2304 metres. This means that Thomas goes into the decisive mountain time trial on Saturday with a lead of 26 seconds over the Slovenian.

Kämna under pressure to move

Kämna, who was unable to keep up with Thomas and Co. on the steep ramps with gradients of up to 18 per cent, lost a few seconds on his closest rivals after the 183 kilometre long climb with five mountain classifications. He had to let French cycling star Thibaut Pinot and Dutchman Thymen Arensman pass him in the classification. However, the former junior time trial world champion could make up for the narrow gaps in his speciality discipline on the penultimate stage on Saturday. The gap to fifth overall Eddie Dunbar from Ireland is just under a minute.

The AG2R-Citroën team car caused an incident when it brought down the Spanish professional cyclist Carlos Verona. Verona was apparently hit on the rear wheel, but was able to continue the stage in the breakaway group. As the Italian TV station RAI reported, the car was excluded from the race.

Although only 18.6 kilometres of time trial await on Saturday, the final climb to Monte Lussari is a tough one. An average gradient of 11.2 kilometres awaits over 7.8 kilometres. On Sunday, the final stage with start and finish in Rome should be a sprinter's race.

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