Giro d'Italia - Stage 19: Steinhauser back on the podium in Vendrame victory
Sebastian Lindner
· 24.05.2024
It is the Giro of Georg Steinhauser (EF Education EasyPost). The 22-year-old from Allgäu delivered another top performance on stage 19, finishing third behind stage winner Andrea Vendrame (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Pelayo Sanchez (Movistar). Two days ago, the young German had won his first Grand Tour celebrated his first victory as a professional. Before that, he had already finished third on the queen's stage.
He could hardly believe it himself, as he told Eurosport after the race. "It feels unreal, before the Giro I would never have dreamed of such results." Above all, he was not expecting another podium. "I didn't feel so good at the start, I didn't really want to be in the group," he said, describing the situation. But he ended up there after all because he did some work for his team-mate Michael Valgren. There was no EF rider in the early first group, which was caught again after 30 kilometres.
"Impressive victory for Vendrame"
The American team also missed the second attack by Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal - Quick Step) with nine other riders. With power and the help of Visma | Lease a Bike, who were in a similar situation, the two teams then set up another chasing group, which ultimately managed to catch up with a leading group of 19 riders. The peloton put their legs up - and reached the finish 16 minutes behind.
On the day's climbs on the 157-kilometre section between Mortegliano and Sappada, Alaphilippe and Steinhauser repeatedly fought a duel. But on the descent before the final climb, it was the winner Vendrame who was able to break away and could no longer be caught on the uphill. "It was an impressive victory for Vendrame. It was crazy, we rode flat out and he was alone and held on," said the equally convincing Steinhauser, paying tribute to the winner.
Steinhauser now in the blue jersey
It was the second Giro victory of his career. Vendrame had already won a stage in Italy in 2021. The last of the 29-year-old Italian's five victories also came in the same year. "They weren't quite on the same page behind me and that helped," he said, outlining the final climb from his perspective. "But I thought someone would come back and I didn't ride all the way. That was perfect."
Things also went almost perfectly for Steinhauser, who will be wearing the mountain jersey on stage 20 thanks to his renewed appearance in the breakaway and his diligent collection of mountain points. Of course, this is only on behalf of Pogacar, who continues to lead the unchanged top 10 of the overall standings and wears pink. Steinhauser is the new runner-up in the mountains classification, displacing Giulio Pellizzari (VF Group - Bardiani CSF - Faizane).
Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) experienced a moment of shock. When the winner had long since crossed the finish line, the third-placed rider in the overall standings came crashing down after catching a rear wheel in an inattentive moment. Apparently uninjured, he was quickly back on his bike. The competition did not take advantage of the situation.
Giro d'Italia 2024: Results - the top 10 of stage 19
- Andrea Vendrame (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) 3:51:05
- Pelayo Sanchez (Movistar) +0:54
- Georg Steinhauser (EF Education EasyPost) +1:07
- Jhonatan Narvaez (Ineos Grenadiers) +2:27
- Luke Plapp (Jayco AlUla) +2:27
- Simone Velasco (Astana Qazqastan) +2:30
- Jan Tratnik (Visma | Lease a Bike) +2:30
- Michael Valgren (EF Education EasyPost) +2:30
- Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal - Quick Step) +2:32
- Quinten Hermans (Alpecin-Deceuninck) +2:52
The current standings in the overall standings
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 71:24:03
- Daniel Felipe Martinez (Bora-Hansgrohe) +7:42
- Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) +8:04
- Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) +9:47
- Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) +10:29
- Thymen Arensman (Ineos Grenadiers) +11:10
- Romain Bardet (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) +12:42
- One Rubio (Movistar) +13:33
- Filippo Zana (Team Jayco-AlUla) +13:52
- Jan Hirt (Soudal - Quick Step) +14:44
How the 19th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2024 went
As soon as the start was released after a delay of a quarter of an hour - the organisers were worried that the peloton would reach the finish too early - ten riders broke away, but they were unable to gain a half-minute lead because there was no satisfaction with the escapees at the back of the peloton. Nevertheless, it took 30 kilometres before this group was caught again at a small wave.
It was Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal - Quick Step) who immediately took the initiative and formed a second group. And this time it was a really big one. Pelayo Sanchez (Movistar) and Jhonatan Narvaez (Ineos Grenadiers) were two more stage winners. Quinten Hermans (Alpecin-Deceuninck) has also been on the podium during the race. But nobody was satisfied. First, another quartet with the two Lidl-Trek pros Jasper Stuyven and Edward Theuns rolled up from behind, creating another group of ten.
Steinhauser rides to the front
But not all the teams were happy with this either, especially Visma | Lease a Bike and EF Education EasyPost. After the pressure from these two teams, another nine riders broke away from the peloton, which then lifted its legs and spread out. With 80 kilometres to go, these riders had also reached the front. Among them: an EF trio around Georg Steinhauser and Jan Tratnik (Visma | Lease a Bike) with reinforcements.
Before the second, mountainous part of the day began, the group already had an eight-minute lead, making it clear that the winner would be one of the breakaway riders. Alaphilippe reopened the race on the Passo Duron (2nd category) with the biggest gap the peloton allowed during this stage. The Frenchman broke away from the group, which was far too big for him from the start.
Four riders, Steinhauser, Narvaez, Sanchez and Hermans, made it over the Duron with Alaphilippe, almost ten minutes ahead of the peloton, but only a few seconds ahead of the first chasers. Andrea Vendrame (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) caught up on the descent, but everyone else had to say goodbye to the idea of victory. It was the same story on the Sella Valcada (3rd category). Again Alaphilippe pushed the pace, again the group was split up. But by the time they reached the mountain classification, which was ultimately won by Steinhauser, seven men were back together at the front.
Thomas crashes in the final
Vendrame went into the final climb to Cima Sappada (2nd category) with a small lead, as he took more risks on the wet descent - it had started to rain in the meantime. He gained 20 seconds on Narvaez and Alaphilippe. A group around Steinhauser was even further behind. However, they rode uphill to the front again - but not as far as the leader. He extended his lead to up to 1:20 minutes, as Alaphilippe, Steinhauser, Narvaez and co. attacked each other behind them, but without riding at a consistently high pace. This only helped Vendrame, who was able to ride to victory more or less unchallenged.
Steinhauser was able to break away in the final kilometres of the climb. But Sanchez countered, overtook him and secured second place ahead of the German. The group behind had slowed down so that even the group around Tratnik was able to catch up again.
When the breakaway had long since crossed the finish line, the group of favourites rolled over the mountain. After a moment of carelessness, Thomas got caught on the rear wheel of Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) and crashed. But the Welshman quickly jumped back on his bike and was lucky that none of his rivals in the fight for the podium took advantage of this incident and attacked. In the end, the GC riders all crossed the finish line together.
