Victory for Andrea Vendrame on stage 19 of 2024 Giro d'Italia as Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale just keep winning
Cycling
Benefitting from the GC riders taking the day off, Andrea Vendrame has secured the victory on stage 19 of the 2024 Giro d'Italia from the breakaway, attacking solo with around 28km to go for his second career Giro stage win.
In an incredibly fast start to the day, there was no let-up to the full-gas racing over the opening 50km. A number of different breakaway attempts managed to get themselves around 20 or 30 seconds ahead before things fell apart and they were swallowed up by the bunch.
With 100 kilometres to go, a group of six that included Julian Alaphilippe, Luke Plapp, Jhonatan Narvaez, Pelayo Sanchez, Quinten Hermans and Andrea Vendrame were clear and had been for around 25km. Due to the consistent attempt of counters and subsequent upping of the pace behind though, the leaders had only managed to eek out a 15-second advantage, despite riding pretty much full-on.
One of those counters, including Enzo Paleni, Jasper Stuyven, Mattia Bais and Edward Theuns managed to get themselves into the lead group. When a much bigger group that included the likes of Mikkel Honore, Georg Steinhauser, Tim van Dijke, Simon Velasco, Michael Valgren, Dries De Pooter, Alessandro De Marchi, Jan Tratnik and Manuele Tarozzi joined, the peloton completely sat up.
With 75km to go, the situation was now, a lead group of 19 had finally snapped the elastic, with a UAE Team Emirates-controlled peloton allowing the gap to extend over the five-minute mark. As Narvaez was the best placed in the GC at over an hour down, the team of the Maglia Rosa, Tadej Pogacar, had nothing to worry about in that regard.
As the first of three categorised climbs began with just under 57km to go, the breakaway's lead was over eight minutes from the peloton. With Alaphilippe attacking from the bottom of the Passo Duron, at the summit an elite group of 5 had gone clear of the rest. Alongside the Frenchman were former stage winners, Steinhauser, Narvaez and Sanchez plus Alpecin-Deceuninck's Hermans. Soon on the descent, they were joined by Vendrame.
With things threatening to regroup further, Alaphilippe attacked again with just over 38km to go and whilst he wasn't able to ride clear solo, he again dragged a smaller group clear with the likes of Narvaez, Steinhauser, Hermans, Vendrame, Sanchez and a diarrhoea-battling Luke Plapp with him. At the top of the penultimate climb, the leaders advantage was 42 seconds over their nearest chasers and over eleven and a half minutes to the peloton.
An attack from Vendrame was then met with apathy by his breakaway companions and with 20km to go, the Italian had extended his lead to over half a minute. With the lack of urgency continuing over the subsequent kilometres, Vendrame managed to extend his lead to 1:00 with 15km to go. Already a stage winner from the 2021 Giro, Vendrame was looking good to get just his 5th professional win.
Steinhauser launched a big attack from the chase with just over 11km to go, riding clear from his rivals but Vendrame still over a minute ahead, the German had a big job ahead of him to close the gap. Rather than closing the gap however, Steinhauser was being caught and dropped by a counter-attacking Sanchez on the final climb of the day.
Beginning the final 5km of false flat and descent with an advantage of 1:09, victory was all but assured for Vendrame as long as he stayed upright, continuing the incredible start to the season for the Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team.
Over 10 minutes down the road, Einer Rubio was attempting to light up the GC fight although moves from both the Movistar Team rider and Romain Bardet weren't able to really separate things, the sudden increase in tension did see Geraint Thomas involved in a crash. Thankfully for the INEOS Grenadiers leader however, he was able to safely get back to his rivals by the line.
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Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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- I get the point totally. We live in the snowflake society where some riders forget they are getting paid to ride and get results. When they have a few issues they try to look outside of the real issue instead of themselves. It odd so many of the team are making no complaints and getting on with their job. If you do not like what you do find another job simples. Tough love as my mum would say.paultryan200207-11-2026
- many people advise him to grow slowly and rather do giro and/or vuelta instead of tdf. but i can totally understand that he is not satisfied with taking over once pogi declines, but instead beat him in his prime. so if he goes for tdf again, i‘m all for it. let‘s hope that pogi recovers soon!Ketterechts07-11-2026
- So gracious to offer something no-one would be prepared to pay for. The Giro is not the Tour and doesn’t command the same interest or attract the same “elite” (those willing to pay to be a part of something they consider has ego boosting potential). Roadside viewing will always largely remain free for everyone outside circuits. Introduction of a symbolic entrance to mountain climbs is worthy of exploration. Asking 1-2€ isn’t going to repulse real fans (most will spend 50-100€ on their outing that day all things included) but will prevent a portion of the total knobhead thrillseekers who will join in any large gathering as long as it’s free, just because they’re attracted to crowds, without which it it difficult for them to work up their anti-social behaviour.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- How is radio going to help when someone went over a cliff or bridge or off the roadside into a forest unnoticed and is laying there unconscious?Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- Yep, next we’ll be accusing F1 drivers of avoiding Le Mans.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- But on what is that opinion based? Are you holding him to a different standard than others? Are you saying he should do learn to like something he doesn’t Are you saying he hasn’t achieved enough Are you saying he pretends to be better than his results? It’s actually a really strange opinion to oust if you consider it objectively or rationally. Try applying it to others or yourself by asking if not EVERYONE should then be doing more? Nobody in athletics or swimming gets criticism for not expanding their repertoire when a rival or someone else does. In fact, most who move to another event get accused of running from their rival. Opinions are boring, the reasons behind them are what count.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- for a medical chief to throw things like is just bad. There are already radios which were banned for spectacle. allow radios. Gps trackers are not a complete solutionabstractengineer07-11-2026
- any rider less than 25 whether they are really ready for the position of leadership of GT is probably not the case. I think Pogi himself suffered when he was defeated by Jonas in the TDF twice. But that would be the team's job to ensure support so that they can bounce back. It requires a team and time to get back up and win after getting knocked down.abstractengineer07-11-2026
- I'm very glad he got the big late Quickstep Vuelta win and I hope he has a few left for Euskaltel-Euskadi.flyer07-11-2026
- My memories of Ivan Basso aren't good but I liked his sister Elisa ok.flyer07-11-2026
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⏱️ If @AndreaVendra retakes 2 more hours and 6 minutes, he will move into the Maglia Rosa #GirodItalia
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