Tiesj Benoot ditches Romain Bardet and Wout van Aert on the final section of sterrato. This was the moment the race was won. Amid a galaxy of star riders Benoot was not the obvious pick at the start in Siena but five hours later there was no doubting his strength.
All roads lead to Rome and the route of the 2018 Giro d’Italia was presented late last year with a course going from Israel to the Italian capital. Here are some notes on the course.
Across northern Italy it’s been vendemmia time, the grape harvest. This time Vincenzo Nibali picked, pressed and bottled Thibaut Pinot to win the tour of Lombardy, reeling in the Frenchman on the climb to Civiglio and dropping him on the descent to ride solo into Como. It was Nibali’s second win in the race and if many expected the result it was thrilling to watch.
Leaves are falling all around and a weekend of classics gets under way with Il Lombardia this Saturday and Paris-Tours on Sunday, a final hurrah for the 2017 season. This year’s route reverts to a recent formula with steep climbs to tilt the race to the climbers.
Once a wall that was so steep it was dropped from the Tour of Lombardy. Now it’s back and part-road, part-architectural installation and billed as the world’s toughest cycle path.
Today’s stage of the Giro doesn’t look like a thriller but ride the route and there are plenty of tales along the way, especially at the finish in Reggio Emilia where the city’s sports arena, the Mapei stadium, is a reminder of Italian cycling’s last glory days.
The finish of the Giro d’Italia’s fourth stage this year, Mount Etna or simply “the mountain” to locals in Sicily is an active volcano with several roads to the top. What’s it like to ride?
Michele Scarponi, a jester and the accidental winner of the 2011 Giro d’Italia, died on Saturday 22 April aged 37 following a collision with a truck on the outskirts of his home town of Filottrano.
Only Milan-Sanremo can provide such a thrilling finish. The race seemed locked down until the Poggio when Peter Sagan accelerated. Sonny Colbrelli and John Degenkolb tried to chase but as you can see in the photo above, they could only watch as the world champion rode away from them, just as Michał Kwiatkowski and Julian Alaphilippe launch their move to get across.
The first Monument of the year, this Saturday’s Milan-Sanremo is all about the tense finish, the paradox of the longest race of the year that’s often decided in the final metres and one of the rare one day races where grand tour contenders and sprinters can each stake their claim. Who will keep their nerve?