Romain Bardet has another worse day on Monte Grappa and loses two positions in GC: "It’s not what we had hoped for today but that’s cycling"

Stage 20 saw the Giro d’Italia take on the final mountains of the race, with a double passage of the Monte Grappa climb in the final 100 kilometres of the day. Unluckily for Team dsm-firmenich PostNL, it was also a day where Romain Bardet lost his solid 7th place in the standings, having cracked early on during the second ascent.

"Romain fought all the way to the line to save a top ten on GC, and he can be proud that he kept going all the way to the line. It’s not what we had hoped for today, but that’s cycling, you can have bad days at times," says coach Matt Winson in press release.

Despite losing the contact on early slopes of the second ascent of Monte Grappa, Bardet continued to fight on all alone, arriving to Bassano del Grappa seven and a half minute behind stage winner Tadej Pogacar, but losing just enough time to Michael Storer to defend at least the 9th spot in the GC.

"We’ve had a bit of an up and down race over the course of the three weeks I would say. We’ve had some really good days and some stages where we’ve suffered a little bit; whether that be through illness or injury. Now we have to regather, travel to Rome, and come out fighting one last time on stage 21 where we’ll go for it in the sprint."