Giro d'Italia 2024 Stage 15

May 20, 2024 A modern day epic, 222KM with 5,600M of climbing was set for the riders for the Queen Stage of the 2024 Giro d'Italia. A group of 12 rolled off the front in the first 3KM without a huge fight. Most riders were larger bodied or sprinters, unlikely to make the mountainous journey to Livigno before the peloton. The break hit the first climb with just under a four minute lead at 192KM to go. The peloton hit the Lodrino climb and a lot more riders saw their opportunity to bridge to the front group. Over 40 riders got away on the climb. The front 12 went over the top with 2 minutes on the large chase and an additional 1 minute to the Pink Jersey group. Davide Piganzoli of Polti-Kometa, Christian Scaroni of Astana and Giulio Pellizzari of Bardiani CSF-Faizanè were the first three to get to the front group from the larger chase, but with 500M to go to the top of the Colle San Zeno, the two breakaway groups joined together. Simon Geschke of Cofidis tried to get the Mountains points but Scaroni came around to take the maximum. After the descent of the San Zano, there was a 60KM false flat uphill that brought the riders to the foot of the Mortirolo. 4 riders got clear before the Mortirolo, Scaroni, and Pellizzari along with Harrison Wood of Cofidis, and Alessandro Tonelli of Bardiani CSF-Faizanè. They started the Mortirolo 1 minute ahead of the 40+ man break and 5 minutes ahead of the UAE led peloton. Scaroni took the points on top of the Mortirolo but the lead back to the chase group was down to just a handful of seconds. UAE were also pulling in the peloton and had locked the gap at around 4 minutes 45 seconds. Off the descent of the Mortirolo, 16 riders emerged as the leaders with a gap to the peloton remaining steady. The front group was down to 10 riders as they hit the Passo Di Foscagno with around 22KM to race. Georg Steinhauser of EF-Education EasyPost was first to attack the front group, Attila Valter of Visma-Lease a Bike was next to move with Nairo Quintana of Movistar and Michael Storer of Tudor Pro Cycling latching on shortly after. Nicola Conci of Alpecin-Deceuninck, Luca Covili of Bardiani CSF-Faizanè, Geschke, and Piganzoli were next on the road. In the peloton, Rafal Majka of UAE was called to the front with 17.5KM to go as Tadej Pogačar's last man. Pogačar called in the radio, Majka gave a head nod and the pace went up. The GC group went to a single line with riders swinging on the back trying to stay in contact. Pogačar attacked the GC group with 14KM to go. Dani Martinez of Bora-Hansgrohe tried to follow but was caught by the rest of the GC favorites who stuck together for some time. Up the road, Quinata caught and passed Steinhauser but Pogačar was closing the gap. Only Quintana was left for Pogačar to catch. The final 4KM climb to Mottolino saw Quintana with a 40 second lead over Pogačar at start. Pogačar caught Quintana 2KM later and took the win 30 seconds ahead of Quintana and 3 minutes ahead of Geraint Thomas of Ineos and Martinez, who finished side by side. Ben O'Connor of Decathlon AG2R was next in a few moments later. Pogačar now holds 6 minutes 41 seconds on Thomas in GC but the fight for the podium is still relatively tight with Thomas, Martinez and O'Connor all within about 1 minute.