Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) proved that he is the fastest rider in the Giro d'Italia when he won today's seventh stage of the race in a bunch sprint. After hard work by his teammates had helped bring back a dangerous breakaway with less than 3km to go, he narrowly edged out Giacomo Nizzolo (Trek) in a photo finish while Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEDGE) did a good sprint to take fourth and defend his overall lead.

 

When Marcel Kittel abandoned the Giro d'Italia, most sprinters had expected that they would now be playing on a much more level playing field but in the German's absence, Nacer Bouhanni has taken over the role as the fastest rider in the race. After his dramatic win on stage four, he added today's seventh stage to his palmares in a much more straightforward manner.

 

Going into the stage, there had been a lot of discussion about whether the lumpy profile would suit a breakaway or the sprinters and it ended up as a very close battle between the early move and the peloton. When the five-rider break hit the lumpy terrain in the final third of the race, they dropped the hammer and put the peloton significantly under pressure.

 

With 40km to go, the gap was still more than 5 minutes and it seemed that the peloton had started its chase too late but with no dominant sprinter in the race, several teams fancied their chances. FDJ, Cannondale, Trek and Lotto Belisol all sacrificed several riders to bring back the break and as the escapees also started to attack each other, it was clear that it would be a day for the fast men.

 

With three kilometres to go, the break was caught and from there Giant-Shimano took control. The Dutch team hit the front but seemed to have started too early when final lead-out man Bert De Backer hit the front with more than one-kilometre to go.

 

However, none of their rivals teams had any lead-out riders left and so the peloton unusually slowed down as all sprinters waited to launch their effort. De Backer continued to lead the group at a moderate pace until the final few hundred metres when his sprinter Luka Mezgec finally opened the battle.

 

Bouhanni had again used his excellent positioning skills to get onto the Slovenian's wheel and from there he easily passed the Giant sprinter on the right-hand side, avoiding the risk of getting boxed towards the barrier. On the other side, however, Giacomo Nizzolo came very fast and the two sprinters went head to head in a photo finish.

 

In the end, Bouhanni emerged as the strongest to take his second victory in the race while Nizzolo had to be content with second. Mezgec narrowly held onto third ahead of race leader Matthews.

 

For the GC riders, it was an easy day in the saddle and they all stayed safe on the first dry day of the race. Hence, Matthews heads into tomorrow's first mountain stage with his 21-second over Cadel Evans (BMC) intact.

 

However, the GC will be turned upside down tomorrow when the riders tackle the 8th stage which is a very hard affair. After a flat start, the riders go up two climbs in the finale, with the first one being very steep and the latter being split into two. The finish comes at the top of the final ascent which should offer the first big battle between the GC riders.

 

A lumpy stage

After yesterday's huge drama, the riders faced another very tricky stage on the seventh day of racing as the 211km from Foligno to Frosinone was a lumpy affair. Right from the beginning the riders went up a long category 3 climb before hitting a long, flat stretch in the middle part of the race. The finale was more challenging as it consisted of three small uncategorized climbs and a category 4 ascent (6.5km, 4.9%). From the top 40km remained and they consisted of a gradual descent and a flat stretch to the finish.

 

Yesterday's many crashes had left many riders licking their wounds and in addition to the four riders that had abandoned during stage six, two riders didn't take the start. Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) fractured a finger and a rib and - after losing all GC hopes - decided to leave the race. Brett Lancaster (Orica-GreenEDGE) broke his hand and didn't take the start either but riders like Svein Tuft, ANdrey Amador, Nicolas Roche and Steven Kruijswijk all continued in the race despite their injuries.

 

A fast start

With its lumpy profile, the stage had been seen as a great opportunity for a breakaway and so it was no surprise to see the race get off to a very aggressive start. In the first part, attacks went in both sides of the roads but for a long time nothing seemed to stick. After 9km of racing, the Giro lost another rider when Maxime Mederel (Europcar) stepped off his bike.

 

At the 15km mark, Adam Hansen (Lotto Belisol) and Perrig Quemeneur (Europcar) were the first to get a significant gap but they were brought back before the top of the first climb. Just before they reached the summit, five riders managed to get clear.

 

The break gets a bigger gap

After 28km of racing, Nathan Haas (Garmin-Sharp), Winner Anacona (Lampre-Merida), Robinson Chalapud (Colombia), Nicolas Boem (Bardiani) and Bjorn Thurau (Europcar) were 23 seconds ahead but they had to fight hard to get a significant gap. At the 50km mark they were only 1 minute ahead but now the peloton finally gave up.

 

While Orica-GreenEDGE rode steadily on the front, the advantage reached a massive 8 minutes but then the Australians startd to stabilize it. Meanwhile, Ramon Carretero (Neri Sottoli) became the next rider to withdraw from the race.

 

Several teams commit to the chase

In the peloton, Orica-GreenEDGE got some assistance from FDJ, Cannondale and Giant-Shimano who all put one rider on the front and for most of the day, it was Svein Tuft (Orica), Arnaud Courteille (FDJ), Michel Koch (Cannondale) and Simon Geschke (Giant-Shimano) who swapped turns on the front. They kept the fap stable at around 6 minutes for a long time while up ahead Chalapud beat Boem in the intermediate sprint, the pair being the only ones to show interest in the points.

 

There were still a few points left for the peloton and so Trek tried to give Nizzolo a lead-out. However, he was passed by the Cannondale riders who delivered Elia Viviani perfectly as the Italian held off Nizzolo, Nicola Ruffoni, Bernhard Eisel and Bouhanni in the battle.

 

A strong reaction from the break

The four chasers went back to work and now clearly started to up the pace. As they entered the hilly zone, they had the gap down to 4.10.

 

However, the escapees knew that they had to benefit maximally from the small climbs and their technical descents and so dropped the hammer. While Tuft took a small break from his chasing, the gap went bacl up to 5.20 before the Canadian went back to work.

 

More riders start to chase

Cannondale realized that the situation was about to become dangerous and so added Alan Marangoni to the team of chasers. It didn't make much of a difference though and the escapees were still more than 5 minutes ahead when they hit the category 4 climb.

 

Tuft and Koch fell off the pace on the lower slopes as several riders started to struggle at the back. Trek realized that they also had to contribute and so put Fumiyuki Beppu on the front.

 

Moser does a lot of work

In the second part of the climb, it was down to the Japanese, Moreno Moser (Cannondale), and Geschke to set the pace but as Moser took some big turns on the front, the gap started to come down. At the top, they had pegged it back to 4.20 and the group was single-file, with several fast riders struggling at the back.

 

At the top of the climb, Haas beat Chalapud in the sprint for the KOM points but soon went back to work, riding very hard down the descent. Behind, the chase got more organized as several teams committed more riders and it was now Moser, Marangoni, Paolo Longo Borghini (Cannondale), Sander Armee (Lotto Belisol), Laurent Pichon, Francis Mourey, Jussi Veikkanen (all FDJ), Geschke and Tom Stamsnijeder (Giant-Shimano) working seamlessly together.

 

The gap comes down

This made all the difference and the gap now came down at much quicker rate. While a crash briefly split the peloton and Tyler Farrar (Garmin) chased back from a puncture, the escapees could see their advantage reduced to 2.05 with 20km to go.

 

10km further up the road, it was down to 1.05 and so Haas decided to attack. Chalapud and Anacona were briefly dropped but it soon came back together.

 

The escapees attack each other

With Gert Dockx (Lotto) and Eugenio Alafacio (Trek) now also contributing to the chase and the escapees having started to attack each other, it was clear that it would end in a bunch sprint. Boem (twice), Thurau and Haas (twice) all made attacks but none of them managed to get clear.

 

In the peloton, the battle for position had ramped up and it was now BMC leading the peloton, keeping Evans in a good position. With 4km to go, Giant-Shimano took control with Georg Preidler but it was too early and so Danilo Hondo (Trek) took over, bringing the break back.

 

Luke Durbridge (Orica) took a massive turn on the front before Giant launched their trains. Their rival sprinters fought hard for position in their wake but they had hit the front too early. De Backer led them under the flamme rouge and from there the sprint ensued, with Bouhanni taking h