Giro d’Italia: Ciccone climbs to stage win as leader Carapaz shakes off crash

Giulio Ciccone claimed a third career Giro d’Italia stage victory at the summit finish of Cogne, while Richard Carapaz retained his overall lead despite an early crash.

Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) added victory on stage 15 to previous Giro joy in 2016 and 2019. The Italian escaped from breakaway companions Hugh Carthy (EF Education-EasyPost) and Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) to ride the final 18km alone. Buitrago and Antonio Pedrero (Movistar) completed the podium, finishing 1m 31s and 2m 19s behind Ciccone.

The eventual stage winner worked with Buitrago and Pedrero to cover an early break and the pressed up the Verrogne climb. Carthy, Martijn Tusveld (Team DSM) and Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates) formed a chase group 30 seconds behind, with the former catching the leaders by the time they reached the summit with 40km remaining.

Ciccone’s attack at the base of the final climb cracked Tusveld, Costa and Pedrero, before another burst of acceleration accounted for Buitrago and Carthy. He threw his sunglasses into the crowd before crossing the finish line to huge cheers from watching spectators.

“This is my most beautiful win,” he said afterwards. “It’s better than the yellow jersey at the Tour de France, better than my first wins at the Giro because I went through difficult times in the past two years, with crashes, illnesses and Covid.” Ciccone completed the 178km stage in four hours and 37 minutes.

Carapaz, wearing the pink jersey for the first time this year after taking ownership of it on Saturday, was helped through the day’s three long climbs by his powerful Ineos Grenadiers team after falling from his bike during a mass crash early in Sunday’s stage.

Carapaz, the 2019 Giro champion and an Olympic gold medalist