On the final day of the first week we saw the 'sterrato' stage, going through many of Strade Bianche's sectors. It was a stage for the ages, but not fully for the positive reasons. During the stage,
Primoz Roglic and
Tom Pidcock crashed as seen in helicopter footage, which ultimately led to the Slovenian becoming injured and later on abandoning the race. Whilst the cameras did not capture it,
Juan Ayuso and Brandon McNulty also crashed, and this fall ultimately also led to the downfall of the Spaniard in the Corsa Rosa.
But the stage was one of cycling's most thrilling days of the year, with INEOS Grenadiers attacking from distance,
Isaac del Toro proving himself as a world-class rider already as he distanced all GC rivals and stormed to the pink jersey, but in the middle of it all was Wout van Aert who withstood all attacks and in Siena sprinted to an iconic comeback victory.
In the second week, the GC differences meant that a few riders already had very clear offensive tactics in store.
Egan Bernal rode to seventh in the final overall classification, concluding his comeback as a Grand Tour contender three years after his life-threatening crash. Although he did not achieve the results he hoped for, his fearless long-range attacks on stages 11 and 15 truly lit up the road, sparking dangerous attacks, kicking off the action very far from the finish and giving both fans and riders alike the sense of constant unpredictability.
The second week was also marked by the surge of Isaac del Toro as the 'Patron' of the peloton, not attacking a single time throughout the week, but responding comfortably to every attack his rivals launched during the difficult stages. He increased his gap over his rivals in this week, mainly due to his efforts on Monte Berico, and asserted himself as a very realistic candidate for the overall win. Throughout the final week he would keep such status, although with difficulty, but his reign eventually came to an end on stage 20.
Week 2 of the race was also marked by the crash on stage 14, in which Antonio Tiberi went down and was subsequently affected, losing his chances of fighting for a top result. Giulio Ciccone abandoned the race as a result. However at the time, the fall and splits that happened as a result had very serious consequences in the GC fight, with Juan Ayuso, Primoz Roglic and Egan Bernal also amongst those who lost serious time in a stage that seemed to be rather calm on paper.
Stage 16 was definitely one of the highlights of the Giro, for plenty reasons. With long distance, a very large amount of climbing meters and a peloton that went all-out from the start, the damage in the climbs was massive. After Primoz Roglic abandoned due to a sequence of crashes, the other main favourite to win the race, Juan Ayuso, cracked on the penultimate climb of the day. These were defining hours in the race, where it opened up a lot more and gave way to Isaac del Toro's solo leadership in UAE - something that had been considered for about a week.
However on the final climb there was another race-defining moment, as the until-then flawless Isaac del Toro cracked under the attacks of Richard Carapaz and
Simon Yates. He lost serious time to his competitors who at the end of the day were within or close to 30 seconds behind him, with three mountain stages remaining. This day opened the Giro's fight for victory in an exciting way, and Del Toro's weakness led to the offensive tactics from rival teams that lit up the final days of racing.
Lastly, stage 20, with it's shocking action as soon as the Colle delle Finestre started. EF launched a mouth-opening all-out attack right at the base of the monumental mountain, leaving Richard Carapaz together with Isaac del Toro after only 1 kilometer of climbing. The two were then caught by Simon Yates, and the Mexican was attacked from both sides relentlessly until Yates escaped.
However what was to happen would be one of the best stories in modern cycling, with Yates gaining 1:30 minutes up to the summit of the climb, beating it's record, and jumping into the provisional pink jersey on the mountain that killed off his dreams back in 2018. With Wout van Aert in front Visma's tactics would rise to perfection, whilst Del Toro's lack of work during the climb with Carapaz saw the Ecuadorian refuse to work afterwards and led to a stalemate that would cement Yates Giro victory.
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