Giro d’Italia: Denz doubles up as Armirail seizes race lead from Thomas

German Nico Denz won stage 14 of the Giro d’Italia on Saturday with another powerful sprint to the finish line of the rain-soaked 193km ride from Sierre to Cassano Magnago, while France’s Bruno Armirail seized the leader’s maglia rosa from Geraint Thomas.

Bora-Hansgrohe’s Denz launched his sprint with Derek Gee and Alberto Bettiol in hot pursuit and narrowly claimed his second stage victory after winning stage 12. Gee was second by half a wheel length, his third runners-up finish in this year’s Giro, and Bettiol was third.

“I felt super good today and so I managed to get again into the breakaway,” said Denz. “I felt very good and when Bettiol launched his sprint I followed him and then I went full gas until the line. It was a very tough day but it ended well for me.”

A 27-man breakaway took shape after a fast start, featuring former stage winners Fernando Gaviria, Stefano Oldani, Denz, Bettiol, Davide Bais and Simon Clarke. Cycling through incessant rain which required riders to wear wet-weather jackets to protect them from the foul weather which has continued to disrupt this year’s race, the breakaway opened up a sizeable gap of over 10 minutes.

Oldani, Laurenz Rex and Davide Ballerini attacked with just over 50km left and were quickly joined by Toms Skujins. The quartet worked together excellently to pull away from their pursuers, but ran out of steam in the final stages and were swallowed up with the finish line in sight.

Groupama-FDJ’s Armirail crossed the line 53 seconds behind Denz to become the Giro’s first French leader since 1999, with Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) a minute and 41 seconds behind in second. Race favourite Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) is third.

“I wanted to look for a stage win today. I didn’t really