No summit finish but as much climbing as the previous today, this could be for the breakaway at last.
Juan day at a time: the early breakaway saw Paul Double take some mountains points and the move had four minutes until suddenly it didn’t, it was closed down with Lidl-Trek on the front at times, including a stint from Mads Pedersen, but Red Bull did most of the work. An uphill crash saw David Gaudu and Romain Bardet hit the ground, both made it back only for both to lose ground on the last climb, Gaudu apparently back at the race medic with a hole in his hand big enough to see the anatomy inside.
Giulio Ciccone launched the first move on the Marsia summit finish but was quickly caught, he tried again from the front but the lack of surprise meant he got no room again. The shock next was seeing Egan Bernal launching a move, now almost back to his best. But in the end UAE turned up the pace and Juan Ayuso struck out with 500m to go for the stage win. Behind Primož Roglič was out of the picture but he surged in the final metres to finish fourth and barely lose any time and collected the maglia rosa.
As the first summit finish there’s lots to examine and extrapolate from. First that Ayuso is back after looking a little flat in the opening days but his win masks Adam Yates losing a few metres and Jay Vine lost 14 minutes, presumably smarting from his crash on Friday. Roglič with good and bad, out of position for a finish; but then able to make up ground in the final seconds. Meanwhile Bernal is interesting not just for the comeback but making an explosive effort like that is not normally his speciality; it certainly hasn’t been of late.
The Route: 197km and 3,800m of vertical gain. The elevation means this is a mountain stage. The Valico di Santa Maria Maddalena is the main climb of the day, 12km at 8%. The Montelago climb later on is harder than it looks with 4km at 10% with long 12% sections.
The climb at Castel Santa Maria continues the hard work that the profile doesn’t show, there are some tough wall parts.
The Finish: a series of sharp climbs in the finish, characteristic of the Marche region they often don’t have many engineered concession to the terrain but go up and over the hills. So the unmarked climb out of Matelica is hard going amid the vineyards, the Gagliole climb almost a wall. Then a tricky descent to Castelraimdo. There’s a small rise before the line in town.
The Contenders: plenty will have their eyes on tomorrow’s sterrato stage to Siena but today is one for the breakaway too, perhaps even more so as tomorrow the stress among the big teams could see them dominate the day tomorrow. Today could just be harder to control. Still the finish suits Isaac Del Toro (UAE) and Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) if no breakaway makes it.
The archetypal rider has to be able to handle plenty of climbing including the sharp efforts at the end. One problem is form, Pello Bilbao (Bahrain) hasn’t looked convincing. Similarly former Brabantse Pijl winner Dorion Godon (Decathlon-Ag2r) should fit the bill but doesn’t seem to be sizzling right now, likewise colleague Andrea Vendrame. Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) is and if he can be in the mix so can Mads Pedersen of course.
 |
– |
 |
Vacek, Scaroni, Del Toro |
 |
Godon, Pedersen, Plapp, Hayter |
Weather: sunny but a cool 18°C.
TV: KM0 is at 12.25 and the finish is forecast for 17.15 CEST.
Postcard from Castelraimondo
This is the Giro’s first finish in Castelraimondo but if there’s what Italians call déjà vu it’s probably because Tirreno-Adriatico has been here twice before. The last time was a decade ago when Wout Poels won… he could win here today for the anecdote. Both races are organised by RCS, just as their French cousins ASO organise the Tour de France and Paris-Nice. This set-up looks and sounds the same, a World Tour stage race in March and then the national grand tour later. Only it’s harder for RCS.
ASO likes to boast about having 200 or more towns queuing up to host a stage of the Tour de France; plus they have to clout that if they need they can call up a town that isn’t a candidate and still go there, and collect the hosting fee.
Indeed to thin down the candidates we can see ASO sell Paris-Nice or Critérium du Dauphiné stages to bidders, within geographic reason of course. The idea is they have a go first with a smaller race – we’re still talking a World Tour event – to manage the logistics before the big race comes to town. Do it right and in a year or two they’re on the map come October.
The Giro doesn’t have the same luxury, it can’t dangle Tirreno stages as bait to host the Giro. Race director Mauro Vegni (pictured) has said before he can count on about 80 towns as potential candidates for the Giro, his queue is shorter. If there were more demand then Tirreno-Adriatico could be exploited to zig and zag between the coast. So it’s a rich-get-richer scenario for ASO, while RCS has it a bit harder trying to find start and finish locations.
You may think cycling is popular in France and Italy but some locals, plenty even in the comments section of local newspapers, will rail against the arrival of a Paris-Nice or Tirreno stage because of the road closures and all-day parking restrictions. Your blogger on recon rides has learned not to ask local cafe owners and bakers if they’re looking forward to Paris-Nice or Tirreno because the good replies are curt, the worst are long rants about traffic and parking restrictions ruining a day’s trading. But even the grumpiest shopkeeper will tolerate the Giro or Tour coming to town. After all we’re talking about Castelraimondo right now.
Is it not quite Pidcocky? Just thinking lots of hills and a descent and then sprinty finish…?
Anyone else starting to think Pidcock, if not overrated, drastically overpaid? I’ll hold off until the end of the race. And I get it of course, for Q365 he’s a game changer, but he’s far from al dente this race..
.. will eat my words after the strade bianche
I think he has a fuelling problem. He used to struggle on stages over 200km when he admitted that was the case. Whether it is the nutrition, the strategy or his physiology, I’m not sure
To be fair to him, his team only found out quite late that he was riding the Giro, and had asked him to prioritise the Ardennes, so to peak for both is difficult. I think he should prioritise a stage win over a GC bid, so maybe he should purposefully lose time over the next week, to give him more leeway.
Starting to think? Hopefully everyone has figured that out years ago already.
Pidcocky??
Good one ….
Del Toro is looking more solid this year … so far.
Impressive by Ayuso and nice to see Bernal back.
Fortunato in the break and with a few good riders, the break might well make it.
Lots of possible winners. Be interested to see how Simon Yates does, and a few of the old hands like Ulissi or Caruso.
This race is turning out to be far more interesting (to me) than it would be if, say, Pogačar was present. Which reinforces my belief that to have “all the best” present in more races (as oldDave, I think, has stated to be the ideal) would make racing worse, not better. To have, for example, a Pogačar vs. Vingegaard duel in every major race would soon become boring.
A “Pogačar vs. Vingegaard duel in every major race” would rapidly become tedious. Part of the attraction of watching them is that the outcome is uncertain. But it would be much less interesting once it became clear which of them was winning the duel. In the second, third, fourth duel we would know the winner.
I agree. But if you are a Sheikh paying millions for a new race, you will want these stars at your event, and pay for this to be promoted as the best thing ever, even if it’s on a dull course in October.
Absolutely so.
We have a race! Maybe Red Bull have been knocked of course more than was apparent at the start. UAE are very strong. Can see Egan Bernal making the podium.
Or maybe RB are going to Roglic the race, stay near the front for 2.5 weeks, then make a move.
Good to see Bernal back. A podium would be a great result. Only with this stage have I paid attention to his Colombian NC jersey, though. Strong Cafe de Colombia vibes, ISTR it’s usually the usual hoops, no? Has it been like this for awhile and I’m just being oblivious?
No, it’s a special version for the Giro, inspired by the Cafe de Colombia jersey of old.
Thanks! Makes me think of Luis Herrera and high-tech (for the day) Alan CF bikes. Wonder why they decided to pull that one out.
(That was me, forgot to unanonymize…)
Apparently, Egan himself designed it.
I think it is too early to say who will podium. What we have seen so far is only a preliminary skirmish.
It would be nice to see a genuinely decent breakaway get away and stay away, or at least get close. They have been pretty naff so far.
Also, I don’t understand how Jay Vine motivates himself every day to get up and on a bike with the amount of crashes he has. I think I would find something else to do.
I think I understand at least part of that motivation 🤑🤑🤑
(Not to suggest that he’s some materialistic money grabber; just that these guys are well paid, so not unexpected to continue amidst adversity)
I think it was Nicholas Roche who remarked that he paid less for racing his bike than compensated for the inevitable crashes!
Let’s not forget that the UCI World Tour Promotion-Relegation battle is raging. Both Astana and Picnic PostNL are trying hard. Picnic is leading by just 89 points at the moment. Their lead dropped to single digits before Van Uden hit the jackpot with 180 points for his win in the neutralized slippery stage 4.
Yesterday both teams were present in the break with Leemreize and Scaroni. The latter was quick to realize when the move failed and immediately dropped back to save himself. So, 2 chainrings for him are well deserved.
I’m enjoying this story line too. The stage is great for Picnic but the real prize is Poole scoring a top-10. Meanwhile Astana are pursuing yet more points in Hungary, and doing pretty well.
(wish Picnic were sponsored by Cadbury and their chocolate bar of the same name – jersey would look great)
Youveundersold the Dutch here. It was Kaden Groves in the neutralised slippery. Van Uden in legit hold your breathe racing into Lecce.
Of course you are right! After turning 60 I should rely less on my memory, especially that of the short kind 🙂
^ that was me ^
Loving this course design. Mountaintop-ish finish, into a breakaway day, into the sterrato day, into the TT. Then will be interesting to see if anything happens with the Alpe San Pellegrino climb. Really unpredictable, which I love. I have no idea what the top 10 will look like on Stage 12.
Excellent call by inrng to give Plapp a star. Extremely impressive by Plapp to go 40k solo.
I hadn’t expected to follow the Giro closely, but my it has been a treat so far! The contrast to last years bore is amazing.
I know it’s easy to critizise organisers but credit where credit is due – despite the out-of-place Albanien detour, the route has been an effective driver of open racing.
Hush… 2022 began fun and fast also, with st. 14 (later on) in Turin well worth yesterday’s, but it horribly deflated just as the most promising stages were on.
I want to be confident and believe!, anyway.
Wednesday and Sunday are the next two occasions for some fireworks… or a double dump squib.
2024 also started pretty well, even for Pogi “dislikers”.
I know it may be over in a single stage, but even though most of the UAEs have the Gianetti “shine”, and Roglic being, well, Roglic, I think it may be close for some time. The fireworks are left to the last week. At least I hope. 🙂
I hope that the decent and partly unexpected form shown by known attackers like Carapaz or Bernal might work not maybe for a personal GC result but to sometime shake things up big time far from the line…
gabriele
I’m all in for Bernal. It would be a magic return to the limelight if he manage to pull off a top-3 or just top-5 result.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I can’t wait for the time trial! The GC will likely see pretty serious changes for both of the next two stages, after big moves on the previous two stages. Every grand tour is bound to go off the boil for part of the race, but this one looks poised to be very interesting through at least Stage 16, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if it’s still up in the air going into Stage 19. Kind of a slow start, which is fine anyway, but this Giro has become a very entertaining race with a chance to be a classic.
+1
Yesterday was a barn stormer.
Loved. Great to see Del Toro really show himself again.
Have likewise enjoyed this Giro – I do sometimes wonder though, with stages like that… why aren’t there more? We hear the regular chorus of ‘don’t belong in Grand Tours’ but they’re just brilliant? Everyone I know usually tunes in only for the mountains, always watch a Roubaix/Gravel type stage… maybe we should be go the other way and throw in even more than one? See what is does!
I’m fully prepared for an assault of ‘what the hell are you thinking’ but even true cycling diehards like myself and Gabriele didn’t watch vast swaths of the opening week of the Giro (despite enjoying it) and I doubt many commenters here watched more than a total of 5hours in the week, so what if there were three gravel stages? Variety is the spice of life so losing TT’s, Sprints, sleepy stages isn’t necessarily what I’m arguing… I just think cycling could offer so much more and these stages have regularly been beacons of light in the past decade.
Throw in 5 gravel stages and fewer mountains and see if it gives someone like a ‘WVA-of-the-future’ a crack at doing real damage and going into the mountains desperately trying to hold on. Aware it would give Pog in further of an advantage in this generation, but he already seems to have the peloton on lock so what would it really change? Those costly punctures and random crashes that ex-pros talk of so much that take contenders out never seem to materialise in any other way than to make the later race more exciting, so I don’t really agree – and could see future generations of riders forced to adapt is these stages became more prevalent. Could see it having a knock on effect to the classics with more GT riders forced to compete at the highest level.
And Roglic will crash anyway!
As will Geraint (in his prime excluding 2018).
As will McNulty nowerdays.
Crashers gonna crash.
I don’t mind gravel stages when they are actual roads, like the ones in Tuscany. But I’m not one for going off on random farm tracks or tuc tuc tracks through vineyards. What I find quite strange is the Giro has loads of epic climbs on offer but they use them incredibly sparingly. The likes of the Stelvio, Gavia, Tre Cime de Laveredo, Fauniera and Finestre seem to be on a once a decade rotation. If that. Get them in every year I say. And it used to be at the forefront of finding ever steeper more remote and bizarre climbs, like the Mortirolo, Zoncolan and the gravel one up to the top of a ski slope beginning with a C! But they seem to have pulled away from them too, or tend to take the easier route up. Which seems like a shame.
It’s part of the Vegni style. A moderate moderator all around. Mind, moderation is a virtue, when it’s not…excessive.
Terror of the violent impacts produced by snowflakes on cyclists’ safety doesn’t help to pick anything over 2,000 if not sparingly, nowadays.
“I don’t mind gravel stages when they are actual roads, like the ones in Tuscany. But I’m not one for going off on random farm tracks or tuc tuc tracks through vineyards.”
A bit OT but high up on my favorite obscure races list is Tro Bro Leon. Doesn’t take itself too seriously, got in long before the gravel craze, farm tracks get demented in bad weather, the Breton coast … great fun to watch! I don’t think you’ll ever see the A-listers there (although Pog did show up once for the even smaller Clasica Jaen), which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
oldDave is Team Thibau Nys!