American McNulty wins Giro stage as Armirail retains lead

American bicycle owner Brandon McNulty has gained the fifteenth stage of the Giro d’Italia for his first victory in a grand tour whereas Bruno Armirail stored maintain of the chief’s pink jersey because the race prepares for its dramatic and decisive last week.

McNulty, who rides for UAE Workforce Emirates, edged out Ben Healy and Marco Frigo on the finish of Sunday’s robust 195km route from Seregno to Bergamo.

All three had been half of a giant breakaway that went early within the stage. Healy attacked on the fourth and last categorised climb and McNulty caught as much as him on the descent, adopted by Frigo with 10km remaining.

Frigo was dropped once more on the unclassified climb shortly earlier than the end however the Italian’s excellent descending expertise enabled him to catch again as much as the opposite two, with the end line in sight, organising the ultimate dash.

Geraint Thomas led a gaggle of basic classification riders throughout the road, virtually seven minutes behind McNulty however 33 seconds forward of Armirail.

That noticed the Frenchman’s benefit over Thomas reduce to 1 minute eight seconds. Primoz Roglic was two seconds additional again.

Jack Haig, battling on after a brutal week, was the main Australian on the day, coming house twenty third simply a few seconds behind the principle contenders. He is now all the way down to seventeenth within the general standings, 7:48 down.

Jay Vine (UAE Workforce Emirates) is forty sixth, now greater than 50 minutes behind, whereas Rohan Dennis (Jumbo-Visma), in his last Giro, is 54th, over 63 minutes down.

The unforgiving race has its much-needed second and last relaxation day on Monday earlier than heading to the Dolomites and a brutal last week.

Three of the final six levels have been given the utmost problem ranking of 5 stars and the week kicks off with one in all them on Tuesday.

There’s greater than 5000m of elevation alongside the 203km route from Sabbio Chiese to Monte Bondone, together with a top-category climb to the end.

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