(Reuters) – Davide Bais of Eolo-Kometa won a gruelling stage seven of the Giro d’Italia on Friday after leading a three-man breakaway, beating Karel Vacek and Simone Petilli to the finish line for the first victory of his career.
The seventh stage was one for the climbers on a 218-km ride from Capua to Gran Sasso d’Italia which involved flat roads at the start before the final climb of approximately 45 km — a total altitude gain of 3,900 metres.
The breakaway trio of Bais, Petilli and Vacek were seven-and-a-half minutes ahead of the peloton with 20 km to go and they showed no signs of slowing down as the rest of the group played catch-up.
As they pedalled up an unrelenting climb through snow-banked roads, Czech rider Vacek fell away and looked like he was out of the contest before he put his head down and caught up with the two Italians again in the final two kilometres.
As they waited for each other to take charge in the final kilometre, it was 25-year-old Bais who dropped his rivals and sprinted ahead in the last 200 metres to take victory with Vacek second and Petilli third after they ran out of steam.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Toby Davis)
