Modena—Cattolica, 177km
As I warned, today the Giro d’Italia was back in the Po Valley. Hence the incredibly flat profile that almost cannot be believed. After the brutality of the past two days, ideally this would be one for everyone to lick their wounds and regroup. The stage was basically in a diagonal straight line from Modena going through town after town until the race hit the great Adriatic Coast. In the flat expanse, traveling in the same direction all day, should the wind pick up at all this could be another deadly day of damage. As a true fan of course I would have loved to see the crosswinds. As I tuned in for the replay without knowing the results I digitally skipped ahead in 15-minute increments to make sure I started watching if crosswind action were to heat up early. (An Author’s Note: Living in America, very rarely do I watch these races live). But it was fated to be that the crosswinds would not materialize. Yes, yes, the riders and those covering the race were allowed a day to come down from the highs of the past two stages. Were any metaphorically hungover this morning, today’s Stage 5 let up and offered them recovery. Personally, as much as I love the crosswinds, I felt for and like the riders. I was prepared to cover the carnage of a crosswinds stage, just as most of the peloton were ready to do battle; but at the same time a nice recovery stage to get rid of the hangover would be more preferable. Especially from the perspective of what is to come. Tomorrow on Stage 6 will be another hard day, regardless of whether the win comes from the breakaway or no. The first major climb of the day is a 10.4km Category2 climb averaging 7.4% and it comes halfway through the day: the race will be “ON” all the way to the finish from there with a 15km-long summit finishing climb. Stage 7 should be a sprint stage along the Adriatic coast, but the finish looks very technical and tricky, and who knows if winds will blow off the Sea to shatter the peloton. Stage 8 has a similar feel to Stage 6 with a mighty mountain mid-stage and a decisive finishing climb. Stage 9—functioning as the Queen Stage of the Apennines—will be a nailed on General Classification (GC) battle as a Sunday showcase. And that Monday will not be the Rest Day, but instead Stage 10—the 10th day of racing in a row—which will be a short but O! so tricky transition stage. Yes, all of this is to say we are all a long way away from a proper Rest. And for the sake of the riders who must animate the race, potentially it was good they had this flat recovery day after the hard fought battles of the past two Stages.
After the groggy roll-out, there really was very little to report all day. Only a couple of riders from Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec and Bardiani-CSF-Faizane wanted to be out in the early day breakaway. And even they basically took shifts. One man from each was out there for the first half of the stage, but then they were brought back into the fold or folded themselves. This folding, only for another man from each to. jump out front again for the stage’s finale. Do you see what I mean about that hungover recovery feeling? The race hit the Adriatic Coast with around 25km to go, and that felt like a landmark event at least for the day. For my Midwestern self, the plains of Nebraska finally receded from my mind. Yes to come in contact or cross any significant body of water in that land is a noteworthy accomplishment. Thus for the first time this year the Giro had reached the Sea. Once they hit the Coast, the speeds ramped up immediately for many crucial turns and pinch-points were quickly popping up in the coastal towns.
Yes, crucial turns and pinch-points in the run-in to a technical finale. Alas! Experienced cycling fans know where this story is going. Alas! it was almost inevitable in this cruel sport. Despite the significant blows to the GC campaigns of George Bennett (Jumbo-Visma) and Joao Almeida (Deceuninck-Quickstep), remarkably yesterday no one took any mentionable spills in the slippery soaked conditions. But here on the sunny and quiet lower-key recovery stage, of course a few did on the technical run-in. The first major casualty was Pavel Sivakov (Ineos Grenadiers) when he forced over to the far left side of the road. He seemed to have clipped the curb or even tangled in the manicured boulevard tree branches on the roadside. Crashing heavily, he rolled over onto his back. He managed to remount and ride on, but Ineos announced after the stage that he had sustained too great of injuries to his shoulder, and he would be withdrawing from the race. O! He had high hopes for this Giro, and many others for him as well. He was nominally the co-leader of the Grenadiers with Egan Bernal. He had lost a few seconds yesterday, but surely at the very least he would have been expected to be Bernal’s top lieutenant for this whole Giro. Yes, now, Egan Bernal shall have to ride this Giro without his righthand man.
Ah! But the other major casualty made us even more sick to our stomachs. He always has so much bad luck. He looked so great yesterday after his team teed him up. He looked so beautiful climbing in that rain. Alas! In the final 5km of the stage, when the pace and nerves were at their highest because of the technical nature of the course, the peloton passed yet another traffic-controlling median. There was a human signaler alerting the peloton to the hazard, and the median was even padded for the race. Ah! But at such high speeds it was not enough. The signaler took a knock from one of the riders. Then one or two others hit the padding and like dominoes they took more down. Yesterday’s stage winner Joe Dombrowski (UAE) wearing the Blue King of the Mountains jersey was laid out on the deck, but there was an even bigger name down than this recent victor. Yes, it was the great climbing Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious) laying on the ground in agony and clearly not get up anytime soon. Reports say it was an infamous broken collarbone. As I said, O! surely he has the most rotten luck. When was the last time he really had a clear run at one of these Grand Tours? Always, always there is something that holds him back. My heart goes out to all the riders in his bad luck category—your Richie Portes (Ineos Grenadiers), Thibaut Pinots (Groupama-FDJ), and clearly as shown once more today: your Mikel Landas. Truly, I don’t know what to say: so often bad luck has struck the man; the sheen has worn off. Alas! I am numb to his back luck. My heart goes out to him once more, but by this point for he and riders with this bad luck nature there is almost a scientific proscriptive detail-by-detail grieving process written up. 1. “O! What he could have achieved this race.” 2. “Well how soon can he be back training?” 3. “What objectives are left for the season?” 4. “Man, I think this moment will stoke a fire in his belly, and he’ll finally win it next year.” 5. “And I will be rooting for him all the way.” But let us face the stark reality, it is a big “if” that the riders in this Worst Luck Possie will ever achieve one giant redemptive result for all their bad luck pain and suffering. Grenadier Geraint Thomas’ Tour victory is the summit of these redemptive hopes, and they certainly do not happen for everyone. Yes, yes, once again misfortune hampers Mikel Landa. We pause to dwell on it. It stirs sorrow in our hearts. But ultimately the Giro moves on—especially in the chaotic technical last 5km of a sprint stage.
Somehow the organizers managed to design a stage that contained 5 tight turns in the final 4-or-3km alone, and listen to the order of these turns: Right, right, right, right, left without crisscrossing itself. Use your abstract spatial minds to envision that…and then scratch your heads in confusion. It was a confusing and tight finish. And unlike Stage 2 with its narrow roads that actually helped safety by insurmountably stringing out many, here the roads were wide and all had trains and lead-out men fighting for the front. Luckily, the sprint itself was clean. Viviani and his Cofidis leadout men had the positioning right again. He was the first to launch, and he looked good…others were just better. Viviani took third. My pick of the day came flying from the far left, starting so far back and sucking up so much wind and benefitted from no draft in that finale. O! if only this European Champion Giacomo Nizzolo (Qhubeka Assos) were better placed to launch his sprint, perhaps he did in fact have the power and speed to win. Instead the from behind Viviani came the perfectly-placed Caleb Ewan the Pocket-Rocket (Lotto Soudal). He had all the draft and all the speed. He sailed by Nizzolo who had opted for the longer sustained brutal sprint, but it was not enough to foil Ewan. Alas! It was another minor heartbreak for me on the day. Nizzolo has been knocking on many sprint-win doors all season. Throughout his career at the Giro he has finished second on ten stages and never taken a win. It is a record, and that is a record none want to own. To make matters worse, once he did in fact cross the finish line of a Giro stage first, but he was relegated for an illegal sprinting maneuver. Yes, my mind had picked Ewan today, but my heart won me over to take this unlucky Nizzolo as my bold Official Pick of the Day. I did not hedge my bets, another right pick slips through my fingers, another bitter second for Nizzolo. A double minor heartbreak that acts like salt in the already fresh Landa and Sivakov wounds.
Yes, what started as hungover viewing from the past two days of highs ended only in heartbreak. But at least at the end of the day most are more energized than they were upon finishing in the shivering wet cold yesterday. And thus we can simply wrap it up here for the night. May Sivakov and Landa find redemption speedily. And may Giacomo Nizzolo holding such an un-coveted record soon get the stage monkey off his back as quick as possible. Let us take the tack that he has looked so consistent in the sprints that he is “due” for the win, and not that he has become consistently too good at only taking second place. Yes, to produce and end a recap so plain as this: now the experienced fans can tell. We are surely smack-dab in the middle of the first week; the Giro’s dogdays have begun.
Cycling Odysseys 