Tour of Italy - Photo finish: Professional cyclist Ackermann wins longest Giro stage

Pascal Ackermann has celebrated his first victory of the year and won the longest stage of the 106th Giro d'Italia.

The former German road cycling champion won after 219 kilometres from Camaiore to Tortona in a photo finish ahead of the Italian Jonathan Milan. It was Ackermann's first victory since August last year. Back then, the 29-year-old won the fourth stage of the Tour of Poland.

"From now on, I'm going to fly"

"It was very nervous. I orientated myself on Mark Cavendish's rear wheel. It was so close. I'm just happy that I was able to show that I'm still here. I'm looking from day to day now. From now on I'll be flying," said Ackermann. The 22-year-old Marius Mayrhofer showed another strong sprint and finished seventh.

Around 70 kilometres before the finish, the race came to an involuntary end for the next favourite for overall victory. Race leader Geraint Thomas crashed, which also caused his third-placed team-mate Tao Geoghegan Hart to fall. The 2020 Giro winner fell hard on his left side and was taken away by ambulance. Thomas is two seconds ahead of the Slovenian Primoz Roglic in the overall standings. Lennard Kämna is sixth, 1:52 minutes behind Thomas.

Several corona cases

On Sunday, the overall leader at the time, Remco Evenepoel, had already left the race due to a positive corona test. On Wednesday, his team Soudal-QuickStep reported four more cases. Jan Hirt, Josef Cerny, Louis Vervaeke and Mattia Cattaneo tested positive for the coronavirus. Andrea Vendrame from Team AG2R had to abandon with Covid-19 and Stefano Gandin from Team Corratec. A total of 15 riders have already left the Giro due to Covid-related illnesses.

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