Richard Carapaz wins stage 11 of the Giro d'Italia, update on Jai Hindley injury
Australian time trial champ Plapp, still on a high after his terrific solo victory on Saturday's eighth stage, was this time at the heart of Wednesday's five-man breakaway that looked set to contest the stage win after battling across the fiendish Alpe San Pellegrino climb with gradients of around 20 per cent.
That was before points leader Mads Pedersen shook the sleeping peloton into life, leading a riveting pursuit and enabling them to catch the quintet on the final slopes of the third arduous climb of the challenging 186km route, from Viareggio to Castelnovo ne' Monti.
Then the Ecuadorian grand tour thoroughbred Carapaz familiarly stole the show, powering away over the last nine kilometres after an explosive surge to take a solo victory by 10 seconds from the race leader Isaac del Toro, who won a sprint to the line for second to pad out his overall advantage with bonus seconds.
The young Mexican del Toro is now 31 seconds ahead of his UAE Team Emirates colleague Juan Ayuso at the head of the general classification. The rest of the main GC contenders came home safely, with Primoz Roglic fifth, 1:24 behind, and top Australian hope Michael Storer 14th at 3:20 down.
But former Olympic champion Carapaz's victory reminded everyone that he is still a real threat at just 1:56 behind in sixth place.
"So this is very, very special for me, and extremely exciting as well, great work.
"And I want to dedicate it to my family and to my son. It's his birthday today."
There was good news about the recovery of Jai Hindley, the 2022 Giro champion, who was forced to abandon after a crash on stage six.
Aussie cycling great Robbie McEwen reported on Euros-port: "Jai had a light concussion, but he's feeling okay.
"He told me his injury is to a transverse process (one of the bony projections by the side of a vertebra) and he's got a very sore back, but he hopes to be back on the horse ASAP."
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