BORA-hansgrohe Team (Italy) - Press Release: Peter Sagan makes his masterpiece on stage 10 taking first Giro d’Italia win in style with stunning solo victory.

An undulating parcours welcomed riders back to the Giro d’Italia after its first rest day. The 177km stage featured four short but steep categorised climbs, but with the hardest of these being third category, this wouldn’t slow the peloton down too much as they headed towards the finish in Tortoreto. On a day that would suit the Classics riders, there was no surprise when Peter Sagan was among the riders trying to get in the break. Brought back once, it looked like the Slovak rider had missed his chance, with a group of five heading off up the road, but after Matteo Fabbro made his move and was pulled back, Peter slipped away and managed to bridge across. In the scramble for places in the escape group, their number went up and down until settling on seven, barely allowed much more than thirty seconds on the peloton in these early stages, before extending this to five minutes at its peak, after the peloton had called off the chase. Making the most of being in this lead group, Peter set about claiming the maximum points in the intermediate sprint, before settling in for the race to the finish. With some distance still to go, the break started attacking one another with 30km remaining, as these efforts brought the peloton nearer, the gap less than a minute at the 20km to go point and shrinking steadily. Seven riders became two before, with 12km to go, there was one left – Peter Sagan - the BORA-hansgrohe rider having attacked in true Classics style on the last climbs. Dipping into the final 10km, he had a slim lead over the peloton, pushing his bike-handling skills to the limit on the wet and slippery roads. With just twenty seconds’ lead on the peloton, the final kilometre came into view and by now, everyone knew that Peter was going to take his first win at the Giro d’Italia in spectacular style, not only taking the win, but one of the most memorable both of his career and of the Giro d’Italia – finally having taken victories in all three Grand Tours. In the excitement of the finale, Rafał Majka and Patrick Konrad crossed the line with top-ten finishes to move up the GC, Patrick now in sixth and Rafał eighth.