Paul Magnier was in tears, and his Soudal-Quickstep teammates whooped in celebration after the Frenchman won his third Giro d’Italia sprint.
His victory in Pieve di Soligo near the Prosecco hills came as a surprise after the attacks on the late Ca’ del Poggio climb and a week of suffering in the mountains.
Magnier has now won three stages, while rival Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) could only look on in disappointment after finishing. Third and still to win in this year’s Giro.
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“It was not the plan we discussed this morning but sometimes it still pays off,” Jasper Stuyven told Cyclingnews and Eurosport after giving Magnier an armchair lead-out into the final chicane finish.
“When he was there, we just had to put him in the right position because it was downhill, then flat. There was a bit of chaos but we found each other at the right moment.”
“Paul suffered a lot in the last few days but the pressure was off today and that helped us. When the teams started to control, we told him to stay focused and switch because it could be his day. He then did a wonderful job.”
Magnier was gushing in his praise of his Soudal-QuickStep teammates. He was dropped on the first climb of the stage and on the last climb but each time they dragged him back into contention and motivated him to race to win.
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“The team did a masterclass today,” Magnier said.
“I wasn’t actually on a good day due to the heat and I was dropped on the climb. We got back in the valley and knew that UAE would try to control the race so that Narváez could keep the points jersey but the team helped get my confidence back, then they protected me and Jasper led me out.”
Magnier now has a total of 195 points and leads Narváez by 38 points after the Ecuadorian rider was only 18th in the sprint and so out of the points.
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The UAE rider will try to hunt points in the intermediate sprints on stages 19 and 20, as he did early this week. The final winner of the points competition will be decided in the final sprint in Rome on Sunday.
“Narváez made my life really hard in the last few days by attacking a lot,” Magnier admitted.
Today I didn’t mark him, I just tried to save energy for the last climb. I took a lot of points and so opened my advantage again. So I’m happy to have the cyclamino jersey back again.”
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