America’s Brandon McNulty won stage 15 of the Giro d’Italia by edging a sprint finish with Ireland’s Ben Healy.
EF Education-Easypost sensation Healy, 22, was pipped to the line in Bergamo to deny him a second stage victory of the three-week race.
France’s Bruno Amirail of Groupama-FDJ remains in the leader’s overall pink jersey despite losing time to the main contenders late on.
Britain’s Geraint Thomas, 36, lost the lead to Armirail on stage 14.
The Ineos Grenadiers rider finished in the peloton 21 minutes behind the breakaway on Saturday as Thomas and the main group chose to conserve energy.
Britain’s Mark Cavendish, who celebrated his 38th birthday on Sunday, finished further down the field for his Astana Qazaqstan team. A press conference rumoured to be an announcement about his future after this season will take place on Monday.
How stage 15 unfolded
On Sunday’s 195km run from Seregno to Bergamo, Thomas clawed back a small amount of time in the general classification from Amirail, who is not expected to be a threat to overall victory.
Both Thomas and the race’s other big favourite – Slovenia’s Primoz Roglic of Jumbo-Visma – launched attacks late on and created a gap.
Amirail now leads Thomas by one minute eight seconds, with Roglic a further two seconds behind.
Healy – who was born in Birmingham – won stage eight with a breakaway ride, but this time was unable to hold back UAE-Team Emirates’ McNulty after the pair pulled away from Italy’s Marco Frigo of Israel-Premier Tech.
They created a gap on the final climb through Bergamo’s old town before an unexpected fightback by Frigo in the final 300 metres, but McNulty prevailed for his first Grand Tour stage win.
Hopes for better weather in the final week
This year’s Giro has been marred by appalling weather, with heavy rain causing substantial problems including illness and crashes for the riders.
Britain’s other hope for overall victory, Tao Geoghegan Hart – also of Ineos Grenadiers – crashed out of the race on stage 11, sustaining a hip fracture in a rainy fall on a descent.
So far, 44 riders have abandoned the race, many through Covid-19, including Belgian race favourite Remco Evenepoel of Soudal Quick-Step, who left the race after stage nine.
On Saturday, Thomas hit back at some retired riders who had criticised a decision to shorten Friday’s stage 13 over safety concerns.
He said: “A lot of other things happened in the ’80s and ’90s we don’t do now, which we’re proud of. They can say what they want.”
Thomas was referring to the systematic doping of riders that took place regularly in the sport up until about 15 years ago.
Monday sees the riders take their final rest day before stage 16’s mountainous challenge, which could see changes in the general classification.
General classification
1. Bruno Armirail (Fra/Groupama-FDJ) 61hrs 38mins 6sec
2. Geraint Thomas (GB/Ineos Grenadiers) +1min 8secs
3. Primoz Roglic (Slo/Jumbo-Visma) +1min 10secs
4. Joao Almeida (Por/UAE Team Emirates) +1min 30secs
5. Andreas Leknessund (Nor/Team DSM) +1mins 50secs
6. Damiano Caruso (Ita/Bahrain Victorious) +2mins 36secs
7. Lennard Kamna (Ger/Bora-Hansgrohe) +3mins 02secs
8. Eddie Dunbar (Ire/Team Jayco AIula) +3mins 40secs
9. Thymen Arensman (Ned/Ineos Grenadiers) +3mins 55secs
10. Laurens De Plus (Bel/Ineos Grenadiers) +4mins 18secs
