Stephen Cummings (Dimension Data) claimed the opening stage of the Giro della Toscana.
The British champion was part of a lead group of four, Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida), Egan Bernal (Androni-Sidermec) and Frederik Backaert (Wanty-Groupe Gobert).
The small but powerful group quickly got a gap of nearly one minute on the peloton before the pack could organize a chase. Taking on the last lap of 7.7 km, the gap came down to just over half a minute but despite a furious chase behind, the break managed to keep the pack at bay and fight for victory.
In the final, Cummings timed his sprint to perfection as he passed his rivals on the final meters to take both the stage win and the overall lead of Giro della Toscana. Tomorrow, the Italian two-days event concludes with a mountain top finish to Volterra.
“I wasn’t really feeling super today, having missed so much racing”, said Cummings. “I couldn’t follow on the explosive climb so I just stayed calm, waited and then went full gas after the climb. It turned out to be a good tactic. Towards the end, we were going so fast at the front that there wasn’t an opportunity to split the group so I just waited for the sprint. I let it all out there and I’m just really happy now”.
Giro della Toscana 2017 – stage 1 results (Pontedera – Pontedera):
| 1 | Stephen Cummings (Dimension Data) | 6:28:11 |
| 2 | Egan Bernal (Androni – Sidermec) | ,, |
| 3 | Frederik Backaert (Wanty – Groupe Gobert) | ,, |
| 4 | Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain – Merida) | ,, |
| 5 | Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain – Merida) | ,, |
| 6 | Andrea Pasqualon (Wanty – Groupe Gobert) | ,, |
| 7 | Alexandr Riabushenko (UAE Team Emirates) | ,, |
| 8 | Armindo Fonseca (Fortuneo – Oscaro) | ,, |
| 9 | Francesco Gavazzi (Androni – Sidermec) | ,, |
| 10 | Marco Canola (Nippo – Vini Fantini) | ,, |
