11/03/2022

Tirreno-Adriatico: Warren Barguil takes strong stage win after successful breakaway

Arkéa Samsic have gotten a very important at Tirreno-Adriatico today, as Warren Barguil got himself in the breakaway of the day and had the best legs out of it. The Frenchman has showed good legs in the past few years in the hilly races, and today as gotten back to his winning ways on the steep streets of Fermo.

Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis), Xandro Meurisse (Alpecin-Fenix), Nelson Oliveira (Movistar Team), Warren Barguil and Clément Russo (Arkéa Samsic), Francesco Gavazzi and Vincenzo Albanese (EOLO - Kometa), Valentin Ferron (TotalEnergies), Gianluca Brambilla (Trek - Segafredo), Simone Velasco (Astana Qazaqstan Team), Jhonatan Restrepo (Drone Hopper - Androni Giocatolli) and Davide Ballerini (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team) set off on the day's breakaway. It was a furious start to the stage and a very strong group went up the road which made the task very hard for the teams who were looking to go for the stage win.

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The group collaborated well and kept it's gap even as it entered the brutal final circuit around Fermo where UAE Team Emirates committed to a strong pace. On the penultimate ascent Warren Barguil and Benjamin Thomas went clear from the group, however most of the escapees came back together.

Barguil attacked again with 4.7 kilometers to go, he had seemed the strongest in the group and went solo once again before the final ascent into Fermo. He had the strongest legs out of the breakaway group and extended the gap in the final kilometers, taking a very important win, his first World Tour win since the 2017 Tour de France. Xandro Meurisse and Simone Velasco completed the podium, arriving a dozen of seconds after.

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Whilst in the peloton Remco Evenepoel attacked with 8 kilometers to go, over the summit of the penultimate climb, with Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard the only ones responding. On the descent however, the trio completely missed a corner and not only were they caught, Evenepoel himself found himself chasing on the peloton he had just dropped, completely turning the race on it's head.

Whilst they all managed to make it back to the GC group, there was no footage of what happened in the final ascent, but the GC favourites arrived at the finish with only very small splits between them created in the sprint.