POTENZA: Outsider Koen Bouwman won the seventh stage of the Giro d’Italia on Friday when four riders escaped from the main peloton along the 196km route from Diamante to Potenza.

Spanish rider Juan Pedro Lopez of Trek retains the overall leader’s pink jersey while Simon Yates and Richard Carapaz finished at the same time as the other title pretenders 2min 59sec adrift of the winner.

Bouwman rode the final kilometres with his team leader the 2017 Giro winner Tom Dumoulin, a third Dutchman in Bauke Mollema, and Italy’s Davide Formolo of Team UAE.

Mollema attempted and failed to drop the others from 2km out and when the four approached the line together Bouwman’s burst for the win was unstoppable.

“Tom was a great help because there were two of us, I’m really happy how it all went,” said Bouwman, who came 12th on the Giro in 2021.

“As we came to the line I knew it was mine to win,” he said.

The peloton left Italy’s Mediterranean coast and climbed inland over the 1405m altitude Monte Sirino and the 1402m Mont Grand di Viggiano.

Saturday’s stage is raced around the great southern city of Naples finishing on the seaside promenade Via Francesco Caracciolo where Mark Cavendish won in 2013.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2022