“He’s losing his head” - Chris Horner blasts Giulio Ciccone as Giro d’Italia frustration boils over

Giulio Ciccone’s Giro d’Italia frustration has drawn a sharp response from Chris Horner, with the American former Vuelta a Espana winner questioning the Italian’s body language during a tense mountain-stage fight.

Ciccone has been chasing opportunities in the final week of the Giro, with the Lidl-Trek rider looking to salvage a major result and put pressure on the mountains classification. But Horner felt stage 16 showed a rider allowing that frustration to spill into the race itself. Speaking in his latest Giro analysis on YouTube, Horner focused on the moment Ciccone began reacting angrily inside the breakaway after taking maximum points over one of the climbs.

“Ciccone at this point in time is getting all angry and upset at everybody and you see him swinging his arms and stuff,” Horner said, after watching the stage back. “And I back up the film. He’s doing the same thing earlier on the climb. He’s got a little bit of a temper going here on today’s stage 16.”

For Horner, Ciccone’s frustration did not sit cleanly with the tactical picture around him. Jardi van der Lee had his own interest in the mountains classification, while Jhonatan Narvaez and UAE Team Emirates-XRG were also racing with their own objectives.

“I don’t know why,” Horner added. “He had stage 15 off. So he should be fresh today and should understand what’s happening tactically up here because if you’re Christian van der Lee, you definitely don’t want to go up the road with Ciccone because he’s got too much speed and he can outclimb you.”

Ciccone was one of the major names in the move, but the breakaway never became the smooth attacking unit he might have wanted. Horner pointed to the lack of cohesion as part of the day’s problem. “So Van der Lee has been sitting on most of the time and the chemistry in this group has not been brilliant, to say the least,” Horner said.

With Team Visma | Lease a Bike controlling behind and Jonas Vingegaard already in command of the overall battle, the hesitation in front only narrowed Ciccone’s room for manoeuvre.

Horner had already framed the day as one Ciccone should have been targeting. “Doesn’t take much common sense to figure out that today’s probably the stage you want to win,” he said, placing Ciccone alongside Narvaez as one of the riders who should have been thinking seriously about the stage and classification opportunities available.

Ciccone’s attacking instinct has kept him visible throughout the Giro, but stage 16 added another layer to his race. He took mountain points, stayed active, and kept searching for a way into the day, yet the visible irritation became part of the story too.

By the time the move was almost within reach of the peloton, Horner felt the situation had already slipped away from Ciccone. “There is no reason really for Ciccone to keep going any further because the gap’s at 45 seconds,” he said, after the Italian sat up and spoke to the team car.

The Italian still has time to strike before Rome, but Horner’s criticism was blunt. Ciccone’s legs are not the only talking point now. His frustration is too.