Bahrain - Victorious sprinter Phil Bauhaus abandons Giro d'Italia as race heads into the mountains

The Giro d'Italia 'first half' has ended yesterday with a sprint stage into Cento; and today on the 14th stage some would argue a new race begins. From now on, most of the stages will be geared specifically towards the climbers and GC contenders, and some sprinters begin to leave the race as a result. Phil Bauhaus is the first of which.

"After 4 top ten results at a very testing Giro d'Italia ,TBV sprinter Phil Bauhaus will not start the ITT today," the team announced in a social media post this Saturday morning. "With the last 8 stages not suiting him, Phil will focus on his other upcoming races & goals. Phil loved being here, and thanks the team & fans for their support.

Bahrain - Victorious came to the Giro with a double leadership, one of them being the German sprinter. Bauhaus won a stage at Tirreno-Adriatico earlier this year beating Jonathan Milan in a hilly sprint; alongside other results that was enough to convince the team he was worthy of a leading position at the Corsa Rosa. Andrea Pasqualon and Jasha Sutterlin came along to help him in the leadouts.

The Bahraini team was never very present against the big teams in the fight for the leadouts, but the 29-year old sprinter nevertheless managed to get himself up there in the battle quite a few times. He finished third on the fourth stage of the race into Andora, was third in the bunch sprint behind the breakaway on the following day (finishing 7th).

Once again he rode to a Top10 result on stage 11's sprint to Francavilla al Mare but it was yesterday in Cento that he was in the spotlight for the last time; sprinting to a third place only behind Jonathan Milan and Stanislaw Aniolkowski. Bauhaus is scheduled to race the Tour de France next summer and will most likely be preparing for it specifically now.