"We did an agreement, I can't say now on TV" - Jhonatan Narváez praises teammate Mikkel Bjerg as he climbs onto second Giro victory

UAE Team Emirates - XRG has lost three riders as a result of the mass crash on stage 2, where the majority of the team went down. Jhonatan Narváez was one of the riders, but he has bounced to already take two wins in the space of eight days of racing.

"It's important for me, even coming from the injury in January. We are just five guys, but we play well, we play smart. We have a good atmosphere in the team, so I think still [we take more] victories in the next week," the Ecuadorian said in a post-race interview.

Without the withdrawal of Adam Yates, the team's priority became stage wins fully. With a quality set of classics specialists and climbers, they have begun doing so incredibly well - winning stages 4, 5 and 8. This afternoon, the start from Chieti was incredibly fast, with dozens of riders trying to form a breakaway on a flat start, with two teams controlling the peloton.

But with a temporary split happening at some point, which caught Jonas Vingegaard and Visma off guard, it allowed for three men to attack and get a gap: Narváez and Mikkel Bjerg of UAE; and Andreas Leknessund of Uno-X.

They had the advantage, but that didn't mean too much, with a hard finale and a group of around 30 riders putting on a chase just about a minute behind. There was no room to hide in a group of three, and Narváez played his role the same way the other two riders did.

"It was the first part really difficult, but I think we played well with my teammate". However the work of Bjerg, the rouleur, was crucial for this win. He did the biggest portion of the work until the penultimate climb of the day - where Narváez attacked to victory - and the result simply would not have happened without the Danish powerhouse keeping the group ahead of the rest.

"I think he was the man of the day, Mikkel Bjerg. He's always working for the team, even last year... He's a guy who normally you don't see him on TV, but he's a guy who does a lot for the team. We did an agreement, I can't say now on TV, but he was the man of the day for me."

Narváez was stronger than Leknessund, and the tactical play behind simply didn't allow for his other rivals to come near into Fermo. After a season that only truly began last week - Narváez raced the Tour Down Under but withdrew halfway, forcing him to spend months out of competition - Narváez is now under way at full speed.

"If you see the first part, it was full headwind. Riding flat in the headwind for me was really hard. I think we never gave up. Sixty kilometers to go, we ride well, we ride smart, and then we had the opportunity to go for the stage. In the end it was about the legs," he concluded.