Giro d'Italia: Koen Bouwman takes second stage win in dramatic Santuario di Castelmonte finale

Koen Bouwman has taken his second stage win at the Giro d'Italia, turning Jumbo-Visma's race into another positive point as he mountain classification is consolidated besides a second stage win from another successful breakaway.

The flat start didn't make it easy for a group to go up the road, however once the final breakaway was established it would prove itself difficult to close the gap - and eventually to catch the breakaway at all, as the riders went on to fight for the stage win. Magnus Cort Nielsen (EF Education-EasyPost), Andrea Vendrame (AG2R Citroën Team), Attila Valter and Clément Davy (Groupama-FDJ), Koen Bouwman and Edoardo Affini (Jumbo-Visma), Davide Ballerini and Mauro Schmid (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team), Fernando Gaviria (UAE Team Emirates), Alessandro Tonelli (Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè), Tobias Bayer (Alpecin-Fenix) and Edward Theuns (Trek - Segafredo).

As some of the riders in the group commited themselves to push hard before the decisive set of climbs, the gap grew to nine minutes where it stayed at the base of Kolovrat. BORA had pushed the pace in the peloton but the gap did not come down much.

There weren't attacks, but a group containing Schmid, Bouwman, Tonelli and Valter went over the summit, joined by Andrea Vendrame who bridged across right after the climb. BORA showed intent but in the end rode conservatively in the ascent, leading to a calm day in the peloton.

In the final ascent the group of five rode in a constant state of distrust, with a lot of stop and start and looking at each other, and eventually with no differences consolidated, it was a sprint finale between the five.

Sprint finale which was chaotic, as a sharp left turn in sight of the line saw some of the riders head down the road where the race vehicles were meant to go, and it blew the chances of several contenders. Koen Bouwman eventually ended up making the final corner in front and took the win in the sprint, as his competitors rode behind slowly after going off-road in protest with the finale positioning.

In the peloton INEOS tried to make the difference, as Carapaz, Landa and Hindley dealt blows to each other on the slopes of the final climb. However, very balanced once again, differences did not appear at the finish line.