Giro d’Italia stage 7: Bilbao wins tough leg to l’Aquila

Classy Basque domestique Pello Bilbao won an intense seventh stage of the Giro d’Italia into l’Aquila on Friday.

The Astana rider took the win with a well timed escape from what remained of the day’s break at 1.5km remaining.

Counter attacking a solo bid by Jose Rojas (Movistar), he immediately opened a gap and held on up the final slog to the line.

“It’s difficult to describe how I feel right now,” he said. “I’ve been trying for so many years to try to win a stage in a grand tour. I’m often working for the big leaders on this team, but today was a chance to ride for the victory.”

Tony Gallopin (Ag2r-La Mondiale) outsprinted Davide Formolo (Bora-Hansgrohe) for second place, while a significantly reduced bunch came in just over a minute down with Valerio Conti holding onto his pink jersey.

The tough 185km route took the Giro along the Adriatic coast before climbing up over multiple undulations into the Apennines.

It wasn’t until midway through the stage that the day’s break finally established itself. While attacks had been trying to go clear since the start, they were never of any acceptable composition.

“Nobody wanted to let anyone go,” said Pavel Sivakov (Ineos). “It was a really hard stage.”

In the end, the 12 riders that did get away comprised several of the early activists that the bunch weren’t so keen to release. Key amongst them was Rojas, a near threat to Conti’s lead.

For this reason, alongside the presence of other outside GC contenders like Bilbao and Formolo, the move was never permitted much more than two minutes on a bunch that was ever disintegrating under pressure.

It was all Conti’s stretched UAE team -now reduced to six riders after the suspension of Juan Molano and the abandonment of Fernando Gaviria– could do to hold that gap.

The tough dragging roads towards l’Aquila also saw the lead group whittle down. When it passed 5km to go, there was only as many riders left – albeit with a recuperating Rojas chasing back on.

After the Spaniard made the reconnection at 4km remaining, he launched a last ditch attempt for either the stage or pink.  However, after two days on the trot in the main break, his legs were too shot for the difficult run-in. As soon as he was reeled back in by a Formolo led chase, Bilbao was set for the textbook counter move.