Denz breaks away to win for Roglic as Del Toro protects Giro lead
Even so, the race continued to take a toll on the big names. Juan Ayuso started the stage but retired two days after Primoz Roglic, the other big pre-race favourite, pulled out.
Denz, a 31-year-old German, surged away from the other 10 remaining members of the lead group to give Roglic's Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe team their first win of a disastrous Giro.
"Everyone on the team had the big goal to win the Giro with Primoz," Denz said. "You lose a leader like Roglic, you lose a dream. But we turned it round."
Italian Mirco Maestri sprinted to second 1min 1sec later, edging Belgian Edward Planckaert.
Overall leader Isaac Del Toro rolled home alongside his main rivals 13min 51sec back. The Mexican has two former grand tour winners in close pursuit. He is a mere 41 seconds ahead of Richard Carapaz and 51sec ahead of Simon Yates.
Asked what he was on his mind on the eve of the final battle, the 21-year-old Del Toro replied that he would go to bed thinking of having Nutella for breakfast.
The transitional stage from Morbegno to Cesano Maderno was designed to give sprinters a chance and the main contenders a rest, ahead of two days of high-altitude battles.
Instead, a breakaway group of almost 40 riders, none well placed overall, coalesced up the road. With almost every team represented, the pack let the break go and spent the gently 144km run rolling easily along.
The stage ended with two 12.5km laps and the peloton was so slow that there was a danger it would start its first circuit just as the leaders were beginning their last loop.
Organisers solved the problem by asking the previously dormant Q36.5 team, which had no riders in the breakaway, to up the pace at the head of the pack.
Ayuso, the designated leader of the UAE team, started the day more than 49 minutes behind team-mate Del Toro, his right eye completely closed after he was stung by a hornet the day before. Ayuso had also been nursing a knee injury since a crash on stage nine that required three stitches.
Saturday's 166km run from Del Biella to Champoluc includes three first-category climbs. It is first of two two ferocious mountain days before the survivors can roll into Rome in triumph on a flat final day when the route passes the Vatican where the new pope is expected to watch.
pb-jk/lp
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
40 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump says he will fire lead official on economic data as stocks shudder
US President Donald Trump said he would fire the head of the agency charged with publishing some of America's most closely watched economic data, after a weaker-than-expected jobs report stoked further alarm about his tariff policies. His decision to move forward with plans to sharply raise tariffs on goods from countries around the world had already sent financial markets in the US shuddering. In the US, the three major indexes dropped, with the S&P falling 1.9% by mid-afternoon. That followed earlier sell-offs in Europe and Asia, as investors dumped shares of firms such as South Korean steel manufacturers and German truck-maker Daimler. Trump's plans leave most goods coming into the US facing new taxes of 10% to 50%, depending on their origin, and will lift tariff rates in the US to the highest levels in nearly a century. Trump says the measures will rebalance global trade and boost US manufacturing. But analysts say they will raise prices for businesses and consumers in the US and weigh on the US and global economies, as sales, hiring and investment slow. This week has revived fears about economic damage, as companies update investors on their costs and new data points to slowdown in the US. Employers in the US added just 73,000 jobs in July, according the monthly Labor Department report published on Friday. It also dramatically revised estimates of job growth in May and June, with far fewer gains than previously thought. "The economic data since the Liberation Day announcements did not reflect that sharp deterioration in economic activity, or at least not in obvious ways. This was the week that changed," analysts at Wells Fargo wrote on Friday. The revisions appeared to spur Trump to fire the commissioner of labor statistics, Erika McEntarfer, in a post on social media. "We need accurate Jobs Numbers. I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY," he wrote on social media, referring to the large revisions to the May and June jobs numbers. Trump also lashed out at Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell, whom he has angrily criticised in recent months. Shares in the US opened lower in the morning, with losses accelerating over the course of the afternoon. France's CAC 40 closed down 2.9%, while German's DAX fell 2.6%. In the UK, the FTSE fell 0.7%. Earlier the leading index in South Korea fell 3.8%, the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong dropped 1% and Japan's Nikkei fell 0.6%. When Trump first put forward his plans in April, shares in the US tumbled more than 10% in a week, the concerns spreading to the dollar and bond markets. The stock market recovered after he suspended some of the most drastic measures, leaving in place a less punishing, more expected 10% levy. In recent weeks, indexes in the US have been trading around all-time highs. "The reality is Trump got emboldened by the fact that markets came right back," Michael Gayed, portfolio manager for The Free Markets ETF told the BBC's Opening Bell. "Now he's going to try his luck again." The latest measures are less extreme than what Trump first put forward in April, when goods from key players in southeast Asia, such as Vietnam, were facing tariff rates of more than 40% and a tit-for-tat exchange with China drove US tariffs on its exports surge to at least 145%. But the tariffs still make for a radical change for the US, for decades a champion of free trade. The plans include a minimum 10% tax on most goods entering the US, with major trade partners, including the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam face tariffs in the range of 15% to 20%. Goods from China are set to facing new 30% levies, while exports from some other countries, including Switzerland and Laos face even higher duties. The changes, which are set to go into effect on 7 August, will lift the average tariff rate to roughly 18%, up from less than 2.5% as recently as January. Investors had been taking the impact of tariffs in stride, sending shares in the US and elsewhere to new highs in recent weeks. Mr Gayed said markets had become less sensitive to Trump's rapidly changing trade policies, but he saw risks ahead. "The more he just whips around policy, the more the markets will not care, but as the old saying goes, nothing matters 'til it matters and then it's the only thing that matters," he said.
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
Best of Italian sprinter Dalia Kaddari in images
Dalia Kaddari is one of the top sprinters in Italy. The two-time Italian champion won a gold medal at the 2021 European Championships in the 200 meters. She boats 136,000 followers on Instagram. Her season's best in 2025 happened in Madrid. She turned the 200 meters in 22.68. That is only .04 off her career best, which was set in 2021. She finished in the top eight at the World Championships twice. Dalia Kaddari Dalia Kaddari Dalia Kaddari Dalia Kaddari Dalia Kaddari Dalia Kaddari Dalia Kaddari Dalia Kaddari
San Francisco Chronicle
2 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Alleged leader of Mexican kidnapping ring released after nearly 20 years in prison
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The alleged leader of an infamous Mexican kidnapping ring walked out of a maximum security prison after nearly 20 years Friday, hours after a judge said there wasn't sufficient evidence to support the charges holding him. Interior Secretary Rosa Icela Rodríguez on Friday rattled off a list of appeals, injunctions and complaints filed over the years of Israel Vallarta's imprisonment in a case that never arrived at a verdict. The Attorney General's Office did not immediately respond as to whether it would appeal. Vallarta was arrested in 2005, along with his girlfriend French citizen Florence Cassez. Cassez was eventually convicted and sentenced to 60 years on charges of aiding a kidnapping ring, in a case that soured relations between Paris and Mexico City. She acknowledged living with Vallarta at a ranch where kidnap victims were being held, but professed her innocence, saying she was unaware of their presence. One victim identified her as a kidnapper, but by voice only rather than by sight. A day after Cassez was arrested, police had forced her to take part in a staged raid on the ranch purportedly to rescue hostages and arrest suspects. It was covered by the media and broadcast on television. In January 2013 the Supreme Court overturned Cassez's conviction due to procedural and rights violations. She was released and became a cause celebre in France.
