Andrea Pasqualon | Point d'Appui

Andrea Pasqualon of Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux won the Point d’Appui of the 2021 Giro d’Italia, finishing 72nd among the 143 riders who came safely home in Milano. Pasqualon previously was on the cusps of the fulcrum during Stage 4 of the 2017 Tour de France.

The Lanterne Rouge for the race was also a rider on Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux, Riccardo Minali of Italy, who came home 5 hours, 35 minutes and 49 seconds adrift of the winner, Egan Bernal Gomez of Ineos Grenadiers.

Riders at the fulcrum position after each stage:

Stage 1 – No fulcrum
Stage 2 – Matteo Fabbro of Bora-Hansgrohe
Stage 3 – Stefano Oldani of Lotto Soudal
Stage 4 – Tejay van Garderen of EF Education-Nippo
Stage 5 – No fulcrum
Stage 6 – No fulcrum
Stage 7 – Jens Keukeleire of EF Education-Nippo
Stage 8 – No fulcrum
Stage 9 – No fulcrum
Stage 10 – No fulcrum
Stage 11 – No fulcrum
Stage 12 – No fulcrum
Stage 13 – No fulcrum
Stage 14 – Tejay van Garderen of EF Education-Nippo
Stage 15 – No fulcrum
Stage 16 – No fulcrum
Stage 17 – No fulcrum
Stage 18 – Harm Vanhoucke of Lotto Soudal
Stage 19 – No fulcrum
Stage 20 – Jan Tratnik of Bahrain Victorious
Stage 21 – Andrea Pasqualon of Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux

The sunny quietude that held sway for most of Stage 4 of the 2017 Tour de France gave way to two crashes at the end of the race, the latter of which ended Mark Cavendish’s race and resulted in the expulsion of Peter Sagan.

The elimination of Sagan left 194 riders in the race, meaning the race slipped back into Les Cuspides.

For about 180 kilometers of the stage, Guillaume Van Keirsbulck of the Wanty-Groupe Gobert team rode a brave solo break, gaining as much as 13 minutes over the peloton before it began to reel him back to the boat. With about 20 kilometers left, the catch of Keirsbulck was made, and the sprinters’ teams charged to the fore.

A first crash occurred with less than a kilometer to go as teams jockeyed for position. It took out numerous riders including Tour leader Geraint Thomas, but the race rules allowed all within the last 3 kilometers of the race to receive the same time, so he remains in the yellow jersey. Then a second crash occurred along the barriers as the top sprinters vied for the stage win. Sagan tried to follow eventual stage winner Arnaud Démare of the FDJ team, but Sagan’s move took him into the path of Cavendish, who was also following Démare and tried to come through the narrow space between Sagan and the barriers but hit the barriers and then the pavement.

In replays of the crash, Sagan’s elbow came up at nearly the same time that Cavendish careened into the barrier, but whether Sagan’s elbow came into contact with Cavendish is difficult to see.

Race officials reviewed the finish and initially planned to relegate Sagan to 115th place, or the place behind the last finisher in the main group, and add a 30-second penalty to his time. On further review, the officials expelled Sagan altogether. Sagan’s team has appealed his expulsion.

At the cusps of the center of the race are Robert Kiserlovski of the Katusha-Alpecin team and Andrea Pasqualon of Wanty-Groupe Gobert in 97th and 98th positions, respectively. Olivier Le Gac of the FDJ team remains the Lanterne Rouge.