Beautiful day for Team corratec – Selle Italia, which after Nicolas Dalla Valle’s fifth place in Salerno, came close to victory with Karel Vacek in the 7th Stage of the Giro d’Italia that took the athletes from Capua to Campo Imperatore.

The breakaway of 4 men, one of them Vacek himself, started from the very first kilometres of the race, despite the loss of one of the counter-attackers, managed to keep such an advantage that the Czech athlete was able to play the Stage with arrival on the Gran Sasso with the other two. But despite the Team corratec – Selle Italia rider’s ability to conserve energy for the climb throughout the Stage and several attempts to sprint, all of which were neutralized by the two athletes in the breakaway with him, the stage win was decided in a long sprint that resulted in Bais’ victory, followed soon after by Vacek and Petilli.

“It was one of the best days of my life, albeit it has a bittersweet taste – these are the words of Karel Vacek immediately after the finish – for sure I am sorry that I didn’t win the Stage, but at the same time I am happy that I had a chance to play it. I knew Davide Bais was the strongest in a hypothetical sprint, so I tried the sprint a couple of times, but I couldn’t do it. When we got to the sprint, I felt the fatigue from my previous two sprints, and I couldn’t hold Davide’s wheel.