The first full week at the Giro d’Italia has been a treat for bike racing fans, with thrills, spills, skills and, of course, a whole bunch of hills. The GC battle has ignited, spearheaded by a certain Dane, but other players have stepped forward from the wings and proved themselves to be far greater than bit-parts in what could turn out to be an epic Italian saga.
The race moved back from Bulgaria to its homeland last Monday, and the rest of the week ran the whole gamut between hills and mountains, with predictably exciting results. Read on for our take on what’s gone on.
Jonas Vingegaard looks good, but he’s not the only one
Stalking the maglia rosa like a wiry beast of prey, Jonas Vingegaard already has two stages in the bag and is currently eyeing the GC leader’s spot menacingly from second place.
Right now, there isn’t anything to suggest that the Visma-Lease a Bike rider isn’t well capable of pushing onwards into the later part of the race and fulfilling his dream of winning all three Grand Tours.
And yet, with two surging mountain wins – one on the Blockhaus on stage seven, and one on Corno alle Scale on Sunday’s stage nine, fans might have expected him to be sitting pretty in pink with a significant gap to second. It will be interesting to see how the battle plays out.
Alfonso Eulálio’s impressively tight grip on pink
The rider that currently has what Vingegaard wants is Portugal’s Alfonso Eulálio. He slipped into the maglia rosa almost by accident thanks to his endeavours in the breakaway on a slapstick stage five (remember that one?) and has clung on tenaciously ever since.
The Bahrain Victorious rider only moved up from the third-tier ranks at the start of last season, and his time trial previous suggests he might be lucky to hang on to pink in tomorrow’s long ITT – but the extra watts a Grand Tour leader’s jersey can bestow upon its wearer can often surprise. He will lose pink at some point, but this race will be cemented in his memory – and his name in fans’ minds – for the rest of his career.
Italy’s big hope scuppered by stomach issues
After his win at the Tour of the Alps in April, Italian fans had placed a lot of eggs in the Giulio Pellizzari basket this Giro. The hosts have not fielded a home winner since Vincenzo Nibali back in 2016 and are eager for another.
While only the most fervent optimists would have been backing the 22-year-old Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe rider to wear pink in Rome, a final podium finish did not seem out of reach. Unfortunately for Pellizzari and the tifosi, that may have been rendered far more difficult by the stomach issues that saw him cede 1.28 on stage nine to winner Vingegaard.
He now sits ninth on GC, nearly three minutes back on the Dane, and a minute-and-a-half behind fellow maglia rosa hopefuls Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) and Jai Hindley, his teammate.
Welcome back, Jhonatan Narváez
While one South American rider has had a disappointing Giro d’Italia so far, another has done an impressive job of making up for it.
Netcompany-Ineos‘s Egan Bernal will definitely have hoped to have been sitting somewhere above the 17th on GC that he currently occupies, although the second half of the team’s two-pronged attempt on pink, Thymen Arensman, is not out of the running yet, sixth on GC and 2.36 behind Vingegaard.
UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s Ecuadorian puncheur Jhonatan Narvaez, however, won two well-taken stage wins last week, on stage four and stage eight, both on uphill finishes. In what is his first race back since crashing out of the Tour Down Under in January, Narváez is clearly on fine form. Could we see another?
Felix Gall takes the fight to Vingegaard
With Portugal’s Joāo Almeida out of the picture, ducking out of participation ahead of the race due to illness, many were wondering who would be able to stop Vingegaard pulling off a win in the style of his Tour de France nemesis Tadej Pogačar and simply waltzing away with it. In Decathlon CMA CGM’s Felix Gall, we appear to have found the answer. Despite all-in uphill attacks on two stages by Vingegaard, Gall remains only 35 seconds behind the big favourite.
Fifth in last year’s Tour de France, Gall’s tenacious riding this week have marked him out as Vingegaard’s biggest rival, for now. His sports director Luke Roberts reckons he will only get better as the race continues. Great for Gall, great for fans, not quite so good for Vingegaard.
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