'We sacrificed the whole team to do that' - Vernon and NSN come up short after Segaert's attack
Ethan Vernon said NSN Cycling Team paid the price for dragging him back into contention on stage 12 of the Giro d’Italia, with the British sprinter left almost alone by the finish after surviving the climbs earlier in the day.
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The pace on Colle Giovo and Bric Berton repeatedly split the peloton, with Vernon briefly distanced before fighting back onto the group each time.
“I just hung on at the back of the front group and I was on the limit for a good half an hour with no drinks or anything,” Vernon said afterwards to the media, including Domestique. “So I did really well. I was happy to make it over.”
“But in the end we sacrificed the whole team to do that and we ran out of guys in the end.”
By the final kilometres into Novi Ligure, only Vernon and Corbin Strong were left near the front for NSN, leaving the pair exposed once the attacks started.
“I was just focusing on Corbin, because he was going to be the lead-out for me,” Vernon said. “In the end, it was only me and Corbin, so we had no-one to shut it down at that point of the day.”
The finale then became more complicated when confusion over the finishing circuit disrupted their positioning.
“We saw on VeloViewer that we were meant to go left, and then we questioned it, and they told us it was right and straight through, so someone got it wrong,” Vernon said.
“We only got told a few minutes before that we were taken to the left-hand corner, 900 to go, so they slowed us right down and in the end they gave him the moment to stay away.”
The late move from Segaert stayed clear while Vernon and Strong tried to reorganise with no teammates left to help close the gap and in the end, Vernon took 4th place at the finish.
Result: Giro d'Italia stage 12
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