Lotto Soudal received little help in the chase behind the leaders in the Giro d'Italia and missed a unique opportunity to win a stage with sprinter André Greipel. Sports director Bart Leysen feels frustrated. "They promised to work with us but they ended up doing nothing."
A ride of two hundred kilometers along the Adriatic coast, the Monte di Bartolo the only climb coming at the midpoints the tenth stage of the Giro to Forli was always expected to end in a bunch sprint. However, a leading group of four Italians managed to stay clear and Nicola Boem sprinted to the biggest win ofhis career by beating Matteo Busato Alessandro Malaguti and Alan Marangoni.
In the peloton Lotto Soudal felt they had been led down by the other teams. In the final 20km, they barely got any support from the other teams. "Apparently everyone has enormous fear of André Greipel," sports director Bart Leysen told Het Nieuwsblad. "In the morning I had talked with other team leaders. During the stage I did it again. They all said that they would help but in the end they did nothing. Well, now we will do the same. Tomorrow (today, ed.) we will do nothing."
"I don't understand the other teams, t eams that have not won a stage but did not help. Do they want to win all the mountain stages? Lotto Jumbo had no one in the escape and they have a sprinter, but they did not join us. Twenty kilometers from the finish I understood that it was over. I used my whole sprint train for the work, without success. We are very disappointed."
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