Grotte di Frasassi – Ascoli Piceno (San Giacomo)
It was another day with Biblical Weather on the Giro d’Italia. It was another stage to show your friends and family that wonder why you watch so much cycling. O! And surely if you ever questioned cyclists’ fortitude this day dispelled those doubts. At many points, the weather was so ferocious, the Italian broadcasters had trouble beaming up the racing images. The landscapes that were tackled today were so rugged as well. The race was back in the Apennines, but still on the Adriatic side. Surely, it must be one of the least populated parts of Italy, a gem hidden away from most tourists. Perhaps with all the rain and wind, it did feel like the race was out in the untamed wilderness far from civilization for most of the day. Few fans were noticed on the roadside, many houses were in ruin from earthquakes of the past few decades, and the roads were not in the finest of conditions. In fact, as you will hear, on the extremely long descent towards the stage’s end there seemed to be channels of running water coming down the road making the ever-difficult wet descending all the more nerve-racking. The riders rode up the 10km Forca di Gualdo, the Forca di Presta which peaked out at 1500m high, and finished the stage with the 15km San Giacomo climb. Such a tough day on paper to begin with, throw in the biblical weather, O! surely San Giacomo pray for these riders this day.
Much of the early stage was uncategorized climbing just to approach the two high passes mid-stage that peaked-out over 1500m above sea level. After there was more-or-less a 50km decent to the bottom of the final San Giacomo climb. A stage profile such as that must be mouthwatering for the breakaway specialists. Alas! Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) the greatest Escape Artist of his generation did not get into the break today. But two certain Bahrain Victorious riders did, Matej Mohoric and Gino Mader. With the loss of their leader Mikel Landa to yesterday’s crash, it is now Open Season for stage hunting for the Bahrain Victorious team. Mohoric and Mader wasted no time. They were the ones driving and leading the breakaway for most of the day over those Gualdo and Presta passes. O! But with the horrendous elements, that was tough business…and a certain team and a certain man in the peloton behind had other ideas than letting the breakaway go up the road for the day.
They said at the beginning of the season they wanted to “race like Brazil.” And to their credit, I do think the Ineos Grenadiers have been more fluid and exciting with their racing thus far this season. They can still put on the Deathstar Imperial paceline—as you’re about to hear—but they are having and are providing us with more fun out there. On the first climb, the Forca di Gualdo, the broadcast feed was struggling the most. But it was clear the Ineos Grenadiers were all on the front, only Pavel Sivakov was missing for he did not start the race today. But over the top of the climb, the action did not let up. Instead on that 1500m high “plateau”—for lack of a better word—the action actually intensified. So wet and windy was it up there with 60km to go, the Ineos Grenadiers were almost forming crosswind echelons! Crosswinds do not materialize often in Italy, but leave it to the unbridled-racing of the Giro to have crosswinds strike on a 1500m high plateau in the wild of a barren wilderness. There were the Ineos Grenadiers in one sideways echelon-line driving and shattering the peloton. And who was on the front of these Grenadiers? Yes, yes, it had to be Filipo “Top” Ganna. Perhaps we should start calling him Top Ganna the Shatter-er of Pelotons, for that is what he did today. O! So much more than just a time trialist is he. He is rising high up the ranks of most versatile Swiss Army Knives amongst the peloton. Truly, this Top Ganna is worth his weight in gold, and if relative to the other cyclists at this Giro based on his size he is probably worth the most. To reference my beloved Iliad, with his size differential he looked like Telamonian Ajax head-and-shoulders towering about the rest. As he rode on the front of the peloton up that second Presta climb he looked like a locomotive dragging a long freight train of cars behind. All the top General Classification (GC) men had to fight to stay up with the Ineos Grenadiers, but many lesser casualties were being caught out…and one important fish as well. Alessandro De Marchi (Israel Start-Up Nation) wearing the maglia rosa as the leader of the Giro d’Italia was caught out on a split formed on that climb. Before he knew it, there was a 90-second gap between him and the Ganna led peloton of favorites. Thus ended De Marchi’s spell in Pink, alas! the fairytale dream comes to an end. Ineos pushed on as those winds continued to blow. The winds were so fierce at the top of the Presta climb, all the King of the Mountains banner-age was taken down so that it might not hazardously blow away and strike someone or disrupt the race. Ganna and the rest of the Ineos Grenadiers led the peloton over the crest of the climb with 60km left on the stage, and they were some 3 minutes behind the breakaway leaders who were still going strong.
Yes, ahead the breakaway had begun the long descent, only 4 men were left in contention at the very front. The mentioned Matej Mohoric and Gino Mader of Bahrain Victorious, Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo), and Dario Cataldo (Movistar). It was a very tall order for Cataldo and Mollema to keep up with the Bahrain duo. They were having trouble not just because of the torrential downpour conditions, but because the Slovenian Matej Mohoric is one of the best descenders in the peloton. Remember it was he who popularized the pedaling aero Supertuck that is now banned. But even without his Supertuck, Mohoric still gave it everything in the wet, he had climbed his best all day and now he was doing his madman descending all in the service of giving his teammate Gino Mader the most time possible ahead of the peloton going into the last San Giacomo climb of the day. Gino Mader started the day 3:58 down on GC, at one point their gap was over 5:00, before Ganna and Ineos put their foot down on the gas. With the gap down to 3:00 with 60km to go, the Pink Jersey faded from the Bahrain pair’s minds and all thought was left to get Mader the stage win. Perhaps you remember this young Swissman Gino Mader from this year’s Paris-Nice. It was he who was leading and about to win from the breakaway on the Queen Stage when Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) ruthlessly nipped him in the very final meters of the stage. It was heartbreak for Mader, because that would have been a strong breakout victory. But all saw his climbing abilities that day, and it was he who his Bahrain Victorious team invested in this day.
On and on they all descended. It wasn’t the hardest work descending, but much of it was still pedal-able. Mohoric did all of pacing of the 4-man breakaway for his teammate Mader, while still Top Ganna shatter-er of pelotons paced on for the Grenadiers. The wild remote landscape and heavy rains did not let up for the entire descent. There were the already mentioned river-channels mid-road creating more hazards. And it was all cold enough that the hands were starting to freeze. Making it a difficult task for many riders to fully zip up their rain jackets and take down their last bits of food and gels before the final climb. It cannot be overstated how important it is to keep the body warm and continue to fuel and hydrate in the middle of such a tough stage, the 6th Stage of 21. But the descent and the last-minute feeds came to an end at the base in the town of Ascoli Piceno, which was also located at the very foot of the last San Giacomo climb. The town was the only sign of civilization all day, and would you believe it: the rain stopped, for a few minutes the Sun even poked its head out from amongst the clouds. All adeptly took their rain jackets off as soon as the final climb began, and thus began the first summit finish of this Giro d’Italia.
Mohoric and Mader’s breakaway quartet still had a 2:50 advantage on the peloton at the base of the climb. But one or two kilometers into the 15km climb, Mohoric had finally spent all his energy, all the weight was on Mader’s shoulders now. He had to not only stave off the chasing peloton, but also outfox Cataldo and Mollema or beat them with brute strength. And behind, Top Ganna the shatter-er of pelotons was not yet done for the day. For the first third of this last climb he still continued to do the carnage-creating damage—shelling out many. One casualty was the Champion of New Zealand, George Bennett (Jumbo-Visma). The team had high hopes for him, he came into this race as their sole GC leader, but with 10km still to go already he was struggling. Bennett would yo-yo off the back for the peloton for the rest of the stage. Finally, with 9.4km to go, Top Ganna having worked like Telamonian Ajax on the beaches of Troy called it a day. Truly, he must have rode on the front of the peloton for some 60-to-70km straight; but all in a day’s work for this Swiss Army Knife Filipo “Top” Ganna. By the time Ganna swung off, the three breakaway escapee’s gap was now only 2:00. Ineos continued to drive the pace with Jonathan Castroviejo and Gianni Moscon. Slowly, the breakaway’s advantage continued to shrink. With 5.7km to go, the gap was down to 1:38. Castroviejo swung off, but both the Quickstep and Sunweb teams came to the front to aid Ineos in the chase. The last 4km of the climb were the steepest, and this is where the endgame really began.
At 3.3km to go, the rain may have been pouring again, but the gap was evaporating. It was now or never. The Swissman Gino Mader struck out and attacked his breakaway companions to make his Bahrain team proud. Mollema and Cataldo did not have the slightest answer to him, Mader simply flew the coop as all young fowls inevitably do. But at the same moment behind, the Ineos Grenadiers launched one of their lieutenants, Dani Martinez. Was he striking out for this own GC ambitions? Was the team trying to keep as many riders high on GC actually for Egan Bernal’s sake? Or was this a satellite rider for Bernal to bridge up to later? With this attack, the gap to Mader was really evaporating, he had only a minute’s lead now. O! Could it be two summit finish breakaway heartbreaks in one season? First Roglic, who would it be this time?
With 1.5km to go, the Grenadier Egan Bernal the 2019 Tour de France champion hit out on the attack. He looked best of the GC men on Stage 4, now though still only in the first week he wanted to press his advantage and reward his teammates for all the work they did this day. Another crazy fact too might have been playing in his head: believe it or not, Egan Bernal has still yet to win his first Grand Tour stage! Yes, he won the 2019 Tour, but the day he was going to take a stage was the landslides day when the race was abbreviated without a declared stage winner. So here was Bernal hunting GC time and his first Grand Tour stage win. O! He looked impressive in the soaking wet launching attack after attack. Only Trek’s Guilio Ciccone, Quickstep’s Remco Evenepoel, and Israel Start-Up Nation’s Dan Martin could keep pace with him. Aleksandr Vlasov (Astana-Premier Tech) kept leading a handful of the other favorites trying to claw their way back, but every time Bernal went full throttle once more. It was sensational stuff. Bernal announced he was the man to beat this Giro. And with every surge of pace that only Ciccone, Evenepoel, and Martin could match, Bernal ate into Mader’s lead. With one kilometer to go, Mader still had 30 seconds, but Bernal was gobbling up the road between them. The climb did not let up, and there was even a headwind for the last kilometer. Mader had to struggle and struggle all the way to the line. He was pedaling squares, he was completely spent. But with 30 seconds he did have enough time in hand. In the last few meters, he slowed up at the end because he knew he had it, and because he simply was that tired. He could barely post up as he crossed the line. He raised one hand up in the air, and then had to grab his handlebars again before he lost balance. He looked punch-drunk exhausted, but he had accomplished the mission. From the agony of race-ending injury, Gino Mader had stormed a march to take a wonderful stage victory for Bahrain Victorious…and for himself. In a similar situation, Roglic had heartbreakingly pipped him in Paris-Nice, finally today it went his way. He held off Egan Bernal’s full gas group by only 11 seconds. Thanks to Mohoric’s pacing all day and Mader’s clutch performance on that final climb, it was double joy for the Bahrain Victorious team. Surely this shall boost all the team’s morale from yesterday’s devastation. Their GC-supporting lineup was very strong to begin with. Now with this momentum, it is very likely we have not seen the last of Bahrain Victorious at this Giro d’Italia.
Cycling Odysseys 