A Cyclist’s Guide to The Pyrenees by Peter Cossins
The Pyrenees stretch from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean but chances are if you asked cyclists to name the famous climbs they’d pick a few like the Tourmalet, Soulor, Aubisque or Luz Ardiden. All good but they’re all French and within a narrow central band of the this large mountain range, there’s more to discover, and on both sides of the Franco-Spanish border. This book is a very practical guide.
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It’s hard to pick one moment, Egan Bernal did not launch a coup to seize control, his was a victory of small gains, of seconds gained here and there while others faded. Whether it was at Sestola, on the sterrato or the Zoncolan, he was in charge. But the most visible demonstration of this was Stage 16 when Bernal was so far ahead of the others he could peel off his rainjacket in the cobbled streets of Cortina d’Ampezzo to let the maglia rosa brighten a damp day.
A final time trial and maybe a reward for Filippo Ganna for towing the peloton around Italy for three weeks but it’s this that could cost him today.
The last roll of the dice, a big stage in the Alps awaits. Can Simon Yates attack, and if so where?
Was it a jour sans for Egan Bernal or is there a deeper problem? You probably want to know and we can bet his rivals do too although today’s stage lends itself to a quick test rather than a reversal.
A long day. 231km isn’t Milan-Sanremo but it’s not far off with the climbs in the Pavese hills.
Rested? Then we’ll start racing again and with a hard stage and two climbs that might not have the altitude of others in the race but they’ve got the attitude.
A week is a long time in a grand tour. Egan Bernal and Remco Evenepoel were sprinting for a three second time bonus on the stage to Foligno. A week later, Egan Bernal was sitting up in the streets of Cortina d’Ampezzo to remove his rainjacket, the better to show off his maglia rosa at the finish line. Who cares if this cost him a few seconds, his nearest rival overall is over two minutes down and as for Evenepoel, he lost 24 minutes yesterday.
The big stage of the Giro. 212km and 5,400m of vertical gain, hard on the best of days but the weather today looks grim, it’ll be very cold and wet. Today’s preview is provisional on the planned course going ahead…
11:00am Update: the course has been revised