After a hard battle to stay with the main bunch on stage 7, a late puncture put paid to Marcel Kittel’s hopes to fight for his third win of the 2016 Giro d’Italia.
The Etixx-QuickStep rider, a double stage winner in the Netherlands and for one day the race leader, had been dropped on the fourth category climb of Vallico della Somma late on stage 7. But having lost 20 seconds at the summit, 41 kilometres from the line, the German sprinter managed to get back on following a hectic chase and strong support from this teammates.
Once he was back in the main bunch, a second setback in the form of a flat tire through the streets of Foligno spelled curtains for Kittel’s hopes of fighting it out in the sprint.
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Although Matteo Trentin (Etixx-QuickStep) stepped up to the bar in his leader’s absence and took a solid sixth place in the bunch sprint , the puncture left Kittel 166th on the stage, out of the running for the stage win, and also cost the German his red jersey of points leader, which he had held since stage 2. Fellow German and stage 7 winner André Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) now leads with 119 points, compared to Kittel’s total of 106.
More on this story:
Giro d’Italia stage 7 results
Giro d’Italia stage 7: Finish line quotes
Giro d’Italia stage 7 highlights - video
“We had a very difficult start, more than an hour at full gas and with some bad weather in between,” Kittel said later on the team website. “Our plan was to wait and see what will happen on the last climb.
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