Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) won a sprint finish to take the 11th stage of the Giro d’Italia on Wednesday, just ahead of Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ).
Valerio Conti (UAE Team Emirates) kept the overall leader’s pink jersey before the race heads for the first day in the Alps on Thursday.
Ewan claimed his second stage win of this year’s race, four days after winning stage eight at Pesaro.
Three Italians who have been consistently active in breakaways — Marco Frapporti, Mirco Maestri and Damiano Cima — once again led a long escape in the 221km stage raced entirely in sunshine.
The trio were caught 25km from Novi Ligure, in northwestern Italy.
In the sprint, Ewan chased down German champion Pascal Ackermann (Bora-hansgrohe), who had to settle for third, a day after crashing.
Demare snatched second place for a boost to overtake Ackermann at the top of the points standings. Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) once again fell short, finishing fourth in the sprint.
Thursday’s 12th stage covers 156km between Cuneo and Pinerolo in the Italian Alps, the scene of Fausto Coppi’s mythical long-range attack in 1949.
Giro d’Italia 2019 – stage 11 results (Carpi – Novi Ligure):
| 1 | Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) | 5:17:26 |
| 2 | Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ) | ,, |
| 3 | Pascal Ackermann (Bora-hansgrohe) | ,, |
| 4 | Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | ,, |
| 5 | Davide Cimolai (Israel Cycling Academy) | ,, |
| 6 | Simone Consonni (UAE Team Emirates) | ,, |
| 7 | Ryan Gibbons (Dimension Data) | ,, |
| 8 | Giacomo Nizzolo (Dimension Data) | ,, |
| 9 | Jakub Mareczko (CCC) | ,, |
| 10 | Sean Bennett (EF Education First) | ,, |
| 11 | Juan Jose Lobato (Nippo-Vini Fantini-Faizane) | ,, |
| 12 | Marco Canola (Nippo-Vini Fantini-Faizane) | ,, |
| 13 | Manuel Belletti (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec) | ,, |
| 14 | Giovanni Lonardi (Nippo-Vini Fantini-Faizane) | ,, |
| 15 | Enrico Barbin (Bardiani-CSF) | ,, |
| 16 | Viacheslav Kuznetsov (Katusha-Alpecin) | ,, |
| 17 | José Joaquin Rojas (Movistar) | ,, |
| 18 | Marco Marcato (UAE Team Emirates) | ,, |
| 19 | Bob Jungels (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | ,, |
| 20 | Paolo Simion (Bardiani-CSF) | ,, |
Giro d’Italia 2019 – general classification after stage 11:
| 1 | Valerio Conti (UAE Team Emirates) | 45:02:05 |
| 2 | Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) | +01’50” |
| 3 | Nans Peters (AG2R La Mondiale) | +02’21” |
| 4 | José Joaquin Rojas (Movistar) | +02’33” |
| 5 | Fausto Masnada (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec) | +02’36” |
| 6 | Andrey Amador (Movistar) | +02’39” |
| 7 | Amaro Antunes (CCC) | +03’05” |
| 8 | Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ) | +03’27” |
| 9 | Giovanni Carboni (Bardiani-CSF) | +03’30” |
| 10 | Pello Bilbao (Astana) | +03’32” |
| 11 | Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) | +03’34” |
| 12 | Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) | +03’45” |
| 13 | Pieter Serry (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | +03’47” |
| 14 | Bob Jungels (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) | +04’08” |
| 15 | Mattia Cattaneo (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec) | +04’34” |
| 16 | Hugh Carthy (EF Education First) | +04’36” |
| 17 | Davide Formolo (Bora-hansgrohe) | +04’42” |
| 18 | Rafal Majka (Bora-hansgrohe) | +04’43” |
| 19 | Sam Oomen (Team Sunweb) | +05’02” |
| 20 | Richard Carapaz (Movistar) | +05’06” |
