Jhonatan Narváez crossed the line in Chiavari with a hand raised and three fingers held to the crowd. The UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider completed a hat-trick of stage wins at the Giro d'Italia on stage 11, outsprinting Enric Mas of Movistar at the finish in Chiavari to claim his third win of this race. A two-up sprint on the Ligurian coast, decided by the faster wheel.
The 195km route from Porcari to Chiavari began with flatter roads before the hills returned later in the day, bringing around 2,500 metres of climbing and a final sequence that gave the attackers enough to work with. The opening two hours flew by at an average speed of over 50 km/h, with attacks flying in every direction, surges and regroupings, plus a couple of crashes. Narváez missed the first move. He missed the second. After two hours of hard racing he jumped straight across to the breakaway.
Decided on the last climb
Narváez and Mas were the strongest survivors of the day's break, having both bridged across to the original 12-man move, which splintered over the final two categorised climbs and the climb to the Red Bull Kilometre. On that final, decisive climb to the Red Bull KM in Cogorno, only six riders remained at the front. The lead group shrank to five, then Mas and Narváez pulled clear on the final climb with 12km to go. Mas opened the sprint first. He had no answer.
Narváez knew where his advantage lay. "I realized that Enric Mas was the strongest in the climb. I knew I had to play my game," he told reporters after the stage. Eight seconds back, Diego Ulissi secured third. Behind, the GC group arrived together several minutes later, meaning Afonso Eulálio retained the maglia rosa.
A step in the trajectory
This was not a first strike but a confirmation. It was the Ecuadorian's third stage win of this Giro, having already taken stages 4 and 8. Each came from the front, each from a different kind of finish: a bunch move, a solo attack, and now a duel. Months earlier, a fractured vertebrae at the Tour Down Under had left the season in question. He returned to become the Ecuadorian national champion who made it four stage wins from 11 days for the Emirati squad.
The relentless ups and downs of the Ligurian coast and the Cinque Terre reduced the peloton to around thirty riders by the finish. From that attrition, one rider kept emerging. Nobody in the breaks felt safe with Narváez in it.
A broken back in January. Three stages of a Grand Tour by May. The trajectory speaks quietly for itself.
