Just three more kilometres, and it would have been the first successful breakaway of the 97th Giro d’Italia for Colombia Pro Cycling. It was the seventh stage, and Team Colombia’s Robinson Chalapud was among the men in the breakaway, making it the fifth time the Escarabajos showed up in the breakaway in as many opportunities.

It ended up with another sprint, and Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) scoring his second win, but the breakaway of Chalapud, fellow Colombian Winner Anacona (Lampre), Bjorn Thurau (Europcar), Nicola Boem (Bardiani) and Nathan Haas (Garmin) made all the Escarabajos’ fans tremble in front of TV and on the social networks for many kilometres.

The break started just ahead of the first of two categorized climbs of the day – with Chalapud himself passing first atop it – and struggled to hang clear at first, until the bunch controlled by Maglia Rosa Michael Matthews’ Orica-GreenEDGE allowed them to earn up to 8 minutes. In spite of the peloton’s comeback, the five leaders – and particularly a very determined Chalapud – kept on cooperating perfectly, managing to hold a 4-minute advantage into the final 30 km.

The push by the teams with sprinters made the gap eventually decrease more rapidly, until the five breakaway riders surrendered after giving it all with about 3000 metres to go. Team Colombia’s sprinters  Edwin Avila and Leonardo Duque both launched themselves in the mass dash, taking 14th and 16th respectively.

“I did not expect to be in the break today,” Chalapud explained afterwards, “but several attacks happened on the first climb, and I ended up into a 10-man group, later reduced to 5. Our confidence was increasing as the finish got closer, and with 20 km to go I really believed we were going to make it. Then the accord wasn’t perfect anymore upfront, and they started pushing harder from behind, and in the final kilometres we were almost out of energies. It was a pity to see an opportunity vanish with so little to go: with another climb in the finale, things could have been different, maybe…”

“I kind of struggled in the first few stages as I was missing rhythm, ‘cause I was supposed to take part in the Tour of Turkey. Now my legs are feeling much better, and my first goal in time will be recovering well tonight to help the team in tomorrow’s stage.”

The road goes back up tomorrow [today] on the eight stage, 179 km from Foligno to Montecopiolo: the riders will finish at a 1235 mt altiitude at the Eremo di Madonna del Faggio, but sooner than that they will need to deal with Cippo di Carpegna, the first Cat. 1 ascent in this edition of the Giro. It will be a real opportunity for climbers and a severe test for all those aiming for the big goal at the Giro.