Stage 2: Stupinigi – Novara, 179km
It was a cloudy and quiet ride through Piedmont for Stage 2 of the Giro d’Italia. The breakaway was kept in check. The breakaway’s sprint for the one mountain point available was about the only highlight early in the day, for whoever won that would pull on the Blue King of the Mountains Jersey at the end of the stage. The lack of early action surprised no one who looked at the stage profile before. Besides three little blimps of hills, the route was entirely pan flat. Yes, the Giro was meandering through the Po River Valley. Though Piedmont is the Northwest province of Italy, the Po River is still The River in this region as it flows East all the way across Northern Italy to empty out in the Adriatic Sea on Italy’s East Coast. As I said yesterday in Turin through which the Po flows, to look at a map of the Po River and all the branches that filter into it, it truly looks like Italian’s mini-version of the Amazon. The race passed many flooded fields growing the famous rice risotto all day long. For the Midwestern Americans listening, truly I wondered if I was seeing an Italian version of Nebraska. In classic Italian fashion, it was still more picturesque than the Husker State, but it was still shockingly flat. Nobody ever—not even the Pope—imagines such a wide expanse of flat farmland in Italy, but that is exactly what the Po Valley is. Yes, it is as flat as the Netherlands, surely this is Italy’s breadbasket. I mention all this, because often in previous years as I previewed the stage profiles: there were always one or two stages that shared this similar flat profile. I have an affinity for geography so I put two and two together a few years back to understand you can find something so flat in the Po Valley. But the strange thing this year is that there are three or four of these extremely flat stages in the race…but they are not all grouped together in the same block, they are interspersed throughout the race. But if you look at the route of this Giro, or if you listened to my preview as I described the looping and zig-zagging nature of this route: you will see that the 2021 Giro keeps coming back and back to this flat Po Valley to provide sprinters with ample opportunities to win without any significant climbing efforts to speak of. An interesting feature of this route to be aware of should you ever wonder how the organizers can possibly find so much unequivocal flat in Italy: it is deceptively all in the same one region. And so let us see how the sprinters faired in their first opportunity.
All the teams with even a half decent sprinter were contributing to the pace-making on the front of the peloton for the length of the day. It was a cordial gesture, because the pace was not very high and there were many riders ready to help. One team who had riders on the front was the second division wildcard-invite team Alpecin-Fenix. Yes, all World Tour teams are automatically invited and obligated to send a team to every World Tour race, and it almost needs not be said that the Grand Tours are surely the biggest of the World Tour races. But since Alpecin-Fenix is a second division team, they needed to earn an invitation from each of the Grand Tour organizers. With Alpecin-Fenix’s sterling record as by far-and-away the best second division team led by their star rider Mathieu Van Der Poel, the team has received invitations to all three Grand Tours this season. So here at the Giro d’Italia, the Alpecin-Fenix team was making its Grand Tour debut. But instead of acting like the typical wildcard invitational team sending riders up the road in the breakaway to animate the race, Alpecin-Fenix was helping catch the break. Alpecin was acting like they had been here before. They appeared to be undaunted by the teams with the top sprinters. Such confidence would be supremely logical if the Madman Mathieu Van Der Poel were in attendance, but he and his ambitious Madman schedule were off somewhere else in Europe participating in some Mountain Bike World Cup in preparation for the Tokyo Olympics. With or without their Madman, Alpecin-Fenix was ready to impress at their Grand Tour debut and prove they assuredly belong at this Giro d’Italia.
With the likes of Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe), Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal), Dylan Groenewegen (Jumbo-Visma), Fernando Gaviria (UAE), Elia Viviani (Cofidis), and Giacomo Nizzolo (Qhubeka Assos), it would be a tall order for Alpecin-Fenix’s Tim Merlier to pull off a stage win this Giro—but that was the team’s goal nonetheless. Judging by the team’s lineup, most or all of the selected riders would be here to support this Merlier in the sprints. Merlier has low-key been called the fastest man in Belgium. In my opinion this moniker is under review, for a certain Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) has won more higher-level bunch sprints at this point. But in 2019, off of his sprinting abilities Merlier did win the Belgian Nationals to don the Black, Yellow, and Red Jersey for an entire season. In addition to sprinting, I have known Tim Merlier first from cyclocross. For the past six or seven years, he was one of those riders in the top ten-to-twenty range that gets just a bit of airtime for the first couple laps, and as he crosses the finish line. That sounds insulting, but that is the way of viewing international cyclocross: on the broadcast you only ever see and know the top ten or fifteen names in the sport. The last quirky thing I can say about Tim Merlier is that for cyclocross, he does not race for Alpecin-Fenix, but each season he does on the road. To each his own, perhaps the Alpecin shampoo hurts his blonde hair in the winter? But enough of Tim Merlier’s past, how did he do today?
After the long, slow flat day, the peloton rolled into the outskirts of Novara way behind schedule. The final kilometers were dramatically tricky; many narrow twists and turns as they weaved through a few solid roundabouts. There was a crucial tight righthand turn with 4.2km to go, and then an even narrower righthand turn with 1.5km to go. The final straightaway was on a gentle bend, and the riders could not even see the finish line until 150m to go. The General Classification teams actually controlled the front all the way until the Groenwegen’s Jumbo team led the peloton through the last righthand turn with 1.5km to go. It was a speedy sprint by any measure, but despite the ferocity and the pinch-points of the road there were no crashes of any kind. Yes, that is one of the counter-intuitive realities of sprinting. Sprinting is actually safer at higher speeds, because the riders all become more strung out and thus less bodies and bikes are in contention. This was absolutely the case today, under the Red Kite signifying 1km to go the top favorite Caleb Ewan was nowhere to be seen, and he would not even be in contention for the sprint come the end. It was actually Elia Viviani in the best position with 500m to go, with a Cofidis teammate on the front. UAE had a teammate racketing up the lead-out sprint as well, but he committed a blunder the equivalent of cycling friendly-fire. When he swung off the front, he actually cut off his own sprinter Fernando Gaviria who was forced to take evasive action instead of hit ignition on his final sprint. As Gaviria was about to launch, Alpecin’s Merlier actually did with 180m to go. On his wheel, in his slipstream were Giacomo Nizzolo, Dylan Groenewegen, Elia Viviani, and Peter Sagan, but Merlier was on flying form. Merlier had the clearest look at it, the inside line on the bending finish, and all the speed needed. None could even attempt to come around him. Nizzolo added to his record of most second places on Giro stages without ever taking a win. Viviani nipped Groenewegen for the last podium spot, but none of that mattered compared to this unexpected Merlier victory.
On the first road stage of the first Grand Tour they ever road, Alpecin-Fenix has already gotten the stage win monkey of their back. Surely, their sponsors will already be happy for the team has already achieved their Giro goal, already everything after this shall be a bonus. Yes, Tim Merlier has won the Belgian Nationals before which is solidly the hardest national championship to win; but this Giro stage victory should go down as his biggest and greatest win to date. Tim Merlier can now rest easy each night for the rest of this Giro, because he is a winner of a Grand Tour stage. He and his team shall surely fight to win again, but they can now each and all focus on finishing their debut Grand Tour as well without the yearning pressure of an unrealized “W” for the team.
The Giro’s Opening Weekend has been a subdued affair, but that is not to be unexpected or frowned upon. As soon as the route was unveiled, I predicted it would take a few stages for this Giro to roar into life. All need to measure their efforts, from the riders to people like myself covering the race from a far; there are many days still to go. The Giro especially is historically known for a tail-stinging brutal final week in the high mountains in the North of the country. I have no problems leisurely researching the geography of the Po River while watching a slow flat stage while all the riders keep their powder dry for the great battles to come. In all great sports, sitting through the slow parts make the exciting finales even more exciting. By the third week of the Giro, all will be on their hands-and-knees and this tranquil traversal through Piedmont shall seem a lifetime ago. Perhaps in that third week, we shall all be like those reading the grueling and heavy-hearted Mordor chapters of Lord of the Rings who nostalgically yearn for the simpler days of the leisurely Shire chapters at the beginning of the series where green hopes were high and all possibilities still potential. Surely, so deep into the story none remember the markedly “drawing-in” slow start. Yes, today was not the most exciting day as we passed through the Nebraska of Italy, but we should soak it in nonetheless. It was a day Tim Merlier and his Alpecin-Fenix team shall fondly look back on for the rest of their lives. Such pure joys of first victories are a dime-a-dozen on the Grand Tours, but that does not mean any should be overlooked. Today we watched an exposition chapter that introduced us to many characters who shall be central in this 2021 Giro. Via its slow buildup, like the Lord of the Rings, the Giro is slowly luring and immersing us into the world we shall be intensely inhabiting for the next full three weeks.
Cycling Odysseys 