Alec Segaert (Bahrain Victorious) surged to a solo victory on stage 12 of the Giro d’Italia, the Belgian time trial specialist bursting clear from the peloton 3.5km from the line to score the biggest win of his career in Novi Ligure.
The 23-year-old Segaert held off a reduced peloton to take the first Grand Tour victory of his career, using his time trial ability to his advantage as teams struggled to organise the chase in the final kilometres.
Three seconds after Segaert had crossed the finish line, Toon Aerts (Lotto-Intermarché) and former maglia rosa Thomas Silva (XDS-Astana) rounded out the podium. The top sprinters of the Giro, meanwhile, were nowhere to be seen, having been dropped from the peloton on the stage’s pair of third-category climbs over 50km from the finish.
A host of versatile fast finishers, including Jasper Stuyven (Soudal-QuickStep), Jhonatan Narváez (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), and Orluis Aular (Movistar) remained in the group. However, they wouldn’t get a chance to duke it out for victory as Segaert blasted clear on the run-in to the finishing town.
“I would say yesterday evening,” he added, when asked when he decided to attack when he did. “I had it always in mind. I saw it as a good moment on the parcours. I was really happy with how the race was going with a hard pace on the climb and teammates of the sprinters who were left had to ride hard.
“This was my chance to go in the final when they were all on the limit, to push one more effort. For this result, you want to…
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