"Work full gas for him to make a big gap on Roglic" - Mathias Vacek puts massive engine to many uses at Giro's Strade Bianche stage

Lidl-Trek have an absolute diamond in the rough in Mathias Vacek. So far in this Giro d'Italia he has been absolutely key to Mads Pedersen in his pursuit of stage wins, and on stage 9 - besides fighting for the stage win - he was also key in helping Giulio Ciccone distancing his GC rivals into the finale in Siena.

"I was feeling super good today. In the second sector with the crash, I stayed in the group behind. I had to make it back and restart, but I had the information that Cicco was dropped as well," Vacek told Cyclingnews.

The Czech rider is in superb form; and although a bad day on stage 8 cut his chances of reaching the pink jersey significantly, it didn't mean he was suffering from fatigue. After INEOS Grenadiers' group went off the front in the gravel sectors, Vacek did an impressive to close down the gap almost by himself to the front group.

"I just wanted to go, because I knew if I made it in the front as fast as possible, I could recover, maybe stay with them, but I made a bit of hesitation between waiting for Cicco and going for it". That ended up proving costly, as he later struggled with the attacks of Isaac del Toro and Wout van Aert in the final sectors of the race. "Del Toro started attacking a bit too much on the last sector, and I got dropped with Bernal."

After some changing of plans, with Vacek's stage win seeming very hard to achieve, he waited for the group of Juan Ayuso, where he fully comitted to pulling the group alongside UAE to benefit Giulio Ciccone's GC ambitions. "Then, I was pushing for Cicco to work full gas for him to make a big gap on Roglic. Still, it was a good job". It was a job well done, and Vacek himself in 14th place in the general classification.