Carlos Verona soloed to victory on stage 15 of the Giro d’Italia as Primoz Roglic lost more time on the pink jersey held by Isaac del Toro.
A day after Lidl-Trek lost their leader Giulio Ciccone following a heavy crash, Verona delivered an outstanding response as he claimed his first career Grand Tour stage win – and only his second professional victory – at the age of 32.
The Spaniard attacked out of a seven-strong breakaway at the foot of the Dori climb around 45km from the finish of the 219km stage from Fiume Veneto, building a slim advantage by the summit and holding off his challenges over a rolling finale.
But behind it was another bad day for pre-race favourite Roglic who was unable to follow the moves of his general classification rivals.
Egan Bernal had made the first significant move with an attack on the mighty Monte Grappa midway through the stage, and it was notable that Roglic had no response as Del Toro and others covered the attack.
The main leaders came back together on the descent but it had been a preview of what was to come as further attacks followed on the Dori, as Roglic was again distanced, losing 90 seconds by the end of the stage.
Del Toro remains one minute 20 seconds ahead of Simon Yates, with the Mexican’s UAE Team Emirates team-mate Juan Ayuso a further six seconds back in third.
But Roglic fell five places to 10th, his deficit to pink just shy of four minutes going into Monday’s rest day and the final week of racing.
PA
