The scenic sterrato stage on the strade bianche to Siena.
Plapp turns a corner: an anarchic stage with move after move. Mads Pedersen led a trio that dangled off the front for the best part of an hour while averaging 49km/h, all on hilly terrain. Several counter moves later a large group of about twenty riders finally got away but it soon fractured.
On the Montelago climb Diego Ulissi was virtual maglia rosa with Wilco Kelderman for company, as Igor Arrieta got across to the pair. Behind Romain Bardet led the chase the gap only for Luke Plapp to surge past the Frenchman with such ease that it was tempting to dash to a bookmaker. Plapp floated across and moments later attacked the trio to go solo with almost 50km to go.
He’d been the mild butt of jokes on Italian TV following the Tirana time trial where he crashed, the commentators branding the bend “Plapp corner” and mentioning this whenever the cameras picked him up on later stages. Now there’s a better story to tell. But TV commentary has been the least of his worries, he was supposed to be a GC contender at the Giro only for injuries to get in the way and so he changed plans to hunt stages. Job done, it’s probably not what he gets paid for but he gets his first World Tour win and a memorable one too, a great day’s sport.
As Plapp span his way over the last hills in the Marche the bunch behind was spread wide across with the road with Red Bull relieved that Romain Bardet wasn’t taking time and happy that only XDS-Astana were getting ahead of Roglič overall as this means they’re second in the team car convoy today, as in right on hand in case of a mishap.
Ulissi turned pro in 2010 and has won a race every year since and the maglia rosa feels like a consecration. Even if it’s only for a day as he leads by 17 seconds he ends the longest spell for the host country without it, the previous winner was Alessandro De Marchi in 2021.
The Route: 181km and 2,500m of vertical gain. It’s the strade bianche stage but there’s a lot less altitude, and only 29km is on gravel but this is sufficient twice over. First because the fear of something going wrong like a puncture or washing out on a bend is sufficient to heighten the tension. Second because it’s saved for the finish. Just like a “Roubaix” stage in the Tour de France there’s no need to import the fiercest sectors either.
The Finish: uphill into Siena, the spring classic finish past the Fontebranda gate and up the Via Santa Caterina and its giant flagstones. At the top whoever leads into the last corner usually wins.
The Contenders: Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) is the obvious pick but only a minute behind the main GC contenders so he won’t get much space if he tries, plus he didn’t look so sharp on the climb out of Marsia on Friday which means he’s not an easier pick.
If the GC teams go all in today then the breakaway might find it hard, what lead they have could be cut by squads competing to race into the gravel sectors. And in turn this limits some of the picks, it’ll be all hands on deck for GC contenders, for example Kasper Asgreen or Mikkel Honoré probably don’t get a day up the road because they’re helping Richard Carapaz.
Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) tried yesterday, with his form he’s contender today although it’ll require finesse and force, there are punchier riders for the climb into Sienna. Team mate Mathias Vacek is suited to this stage and in form. Isaac Del Toro (UAE) is almost at ease on a mountain bike as a road bike so the gravel won’t be a problem, it just depends if he can be released from helping Juan Ayuso. Wout van Aert (Visma-LAB) could be a turn around story, the form improving. Is Pello Bilbao (Bahrain) in form, he’s been hot and cold so far, it’s hard to tell.
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Pidcock, Del Toro, Ayuso |
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Roglič, Vacek, Pedersen, Cattaneo, WVA |
Weather: sunny but clouding over and the chance of rain later on, only 19°C.
TV: KM0 is at 13.05 and the finish is forecast for 17.15 CEST.
Postcard from Siena
We’re back in Siena again, the city is essential to the Strade Bianche race held every March. Famous for its gravel roads, the race’s identity is also defined by the arrival in Siena, the climb to the historic old town and the finish on the Piazza del Campo.
Indeed Siena has become one of the best city locations in this sport. Roubaix? The velodrome doesn’t tell us much about the town and if it is an expression of the terrain it’s not going to sell many postcards; likewise Liège passes decrepit industrial ruins and while the new finish is more elegant than the old one on Ans it’s not packed with charm either. Sanremo ought to be swanker, but doesn’t quite capture the essence of the town, besides you dare not look at the buildings during in the intense finish. The Clasica San Sebastian is scenic by the Playa de la Concha but similarly the focus on the finish doesn’t show off the coastline as well as it might. The Giro’s finish in Rome is impressive, a tour of many of the landmarks and the Tour de France in Paris obvious too, but both grand tour finales are hardly introducing the sights to the world.
Siena works in a symbiotic way, it offers the sport something and the sport returns the favour. There’s a lesson here for anyone wanting to launch a new event, find a location that works in both of these senses and things are off to a good start.
A lot of work for 180 points but at least Groenewegen topped it up with a few more elsewhere. Perhaps with the monkey off his back Plapp will start to ride with a bit more authority … we will see.
Jayco should be ok for points. They just need results for their own sake.
Glad for Ulissi’s day in pink – probably just one!
Bernal a dark horse for today, expect Ineos to push things along – otherwise Pedersen came in last 28 minutes after Plapp yesterday so should be fighting fit today.
GC guys hoping to come in en masse, I guess.
I think Pedersen finished so far down because he used all his energy in the first hour! Not sure he’ll be feeling too fresh today.
Great day for Ulissi!
And for Astana that overtakes Picnic-PostNL in the promotion/relegation ranking.
Bernal should like today’s stage, in his prime he was a racer’s racer, attacking where he could and not always waiting for the final 3km on a summit finish. Plus he’s an ex-mountain biker and Ineos say they want “to do damage” today (translated from Italian, not sure what Zak Dempster said in English). However, to win is a big ask.
Ayuso seems fairly jumpy and full of beans. I don’t know what his bike handling is like but I’ll go for him today. I can’t see a breakaway getting anywhere.
Crash or no crash, injuries or no injuries affecting his preparation, a guy like Plapp should never lose time deliberately on GC in order to be given space to go on breakaways. It cheapens and devaluates those stage wins. And this we don’t say often enough.
Twas ever this…..!!!!
I agree. But Jayco used to do it with the Yates’ all the time.
Great day for Ulissi! and for Astana who overtakes Picnic in the promotion/relegation ranking.
Ulissi gets 20 points a day for the jersey too.
Wow a lot of naysayers online tonight. I thought that was fantastic!!! Huge win for Plapp. So good to watch.
If anyone thinks that todays stage is scary, they should stand in the middle of the Campo and watch the Palio!
Afterwards the winner and the horse are blessed in the Duomo…..
I’ll stay away from the spoilers, but oh lordy, what a day, what a Giro! Bravissimo! Can’t wait for the next two stages, will be there with my calculator trying to figure out what the hell is happening next!
Thanks The Other Craig and yes that certainly was an awesome Giro stage! Yes I wanted to support WvA and there he was winning the stage up that super steep finish climb after the UK commentators said “here comes del Toro”.
Fantastic that Waught is winning again and he finally joined the “a stage win per each 3 week stage race club”.
Bring on more Giro 🙂
When you write an extremely long and extraordinarily interesting comment only to then accidentally delete it. Well, I guess the riches of my quill will go unknown.
Even though all I really had to say was: I enjoyed yesterday. More gravel stages please.
Isn’t it the one you posted under st.8, Dave?
oh my god!
my work of genius exists!
Thank you Gabriele.
Sienna is stunning but I’d also throw in a vote for Bologna.
Bologna almost deserves a better/higher rated UCI race for this.
Completely agree!
Anyone else from America finding themselves really frustrated by the Multi-Feed offered by Max to watch this Giro? It’s hard to make much sense of what’s going on without the KM ticker and time gap trackers on the screen?? (The negative of this lack of information, more than offsets the positive of having four views of the race.)
Is there a way one can reach out to Max to ask them to change how it’s shown?
I’m in EU, but I am also watching on MAX (sad GCN fan noises) and there I can chose the multi-feed and the regular Eurosport feed on the sports-feed, e.g. here https://play.max.com/sport-event/cycling-giro-d-italia (hope the link is acceptable here?). Actually, I haven’t notices the multi-feed option until like stage 9, but also found it kinda useless with one screen. Could be useful to have it on mute on a second screen, though.
@MJR, watch the option on Max USA titled “The Breakaway.” It’s the normal race feed after some preliminary studio coverage at the intro. The description on Max doesn’t make this clear, so I initially thought the Multi-Feed (very frustrating for the reasons you noted) was the only option too.
@DA: I am embarrassed that I hadn’t yet tried such a simple solution. Problem solved. Thank you!
The Breakaway title implied to me that it was just ten or fifteen minutes of studio coverage, without any actual racing.
They talked about that on The Breakaway. They expect you to use a 2nd device for the Multi-feed.
They also admitted that you need to see km to go and the gaps.
I started watching yesterday on Multi-feed. I needed my Inner Ring preview to see where they are on the course.
Breakaway wasn’t on yet, soon after the stage finished live. I don’t know if it’s always always that way.
Toledo should take the hint from Sienna.