Grado—Gorizia, 145km
Well, typically the Sundays of a Grand Tour are slotted to have a highly anticipated stage destined to enthrall the viewership with many hours of action, which should be at most viewers’ disposal on a weekend. But with yesterday’s Zoncolan and tomorrow’s day in the Dolomites, many of the riders really did need the Grand Tour “dog days” transition stage. It was a bit of a novel day though, because for the first time in 17 years the Giro ventured into Northeast neighbor Slovenia. Truly, truly the Iron Curtain that once divided Yugoslavia and Italy is long gone, for this stage route crisscrossed between the border countless times. The many crisscrosses almost made fun of the idea that once there was an ideological and physical barriered-off divide in this part of the world. It looked to be a great Spring Afternoon spectacle for the Slovenians coming out to cheer on the Giro. Of course, Slovenians have a lot to celebrate in cycling at this point in history: two of the best Grand Tour riders in the world, many solid racers to fill out their ranks as well. Alas! Their superstars Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) and Tadej Pogacar (UAE) were not here, with eyes for a rematch in France. Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious) horrifyingly already crashed out of this Giro. And Bahrain’s other Slovenian Jan Tratnik’s breakaway exploits from yesterday have already been detailed. Thus Tratnik and no other Slovenians got themselves into the breakaway today. With Ineos not chasing down much this Giro, this day of all days was destined to be one for the breakaway. This is what happened, but not before an early race neutralization because of many early crashes. Unfortunately, Bora’s Emanuel Buchmann riding in 6th on the General Classification (GC) was one of the victims who was forced to abandon the race. It has been a hard Giro, there have been many casualties. So it was no surprise to see the Ineos-led peloton sit up to take as much of an informal Rest Day as they possibly could between two great mountain stages. Ineos let the breakaway’s lead quickly balloon out to 12 minutes. Yes, yes, after the early crashes, the stories of the day would be coming from the ambitious escapees up front.
It was 15-man breakaway that went up the road, made up mostly of bigger World Tour teams that had not a protected top sprinter or GC rider. Movistar, Lotto Soudal, and Alpecin-Fenix each had two riders in the move; and Qhubeka Assos had three. There was little to report from the middle of the stage, besides the excellent enthusiasm from the Slovenian fans. Ah! Let me tell you, truly this Giro things are getting back to normal with the race-endangering rowdy fans coming back out of the woodwork. But let us not make this another long story, let us jump to the business end of the stage.
The wind was blowing all day, but no echelon crosswind action materialized. With 31km to go, Alpecin’s Oscar Riesebeek put in an attack that was instantly covered by Qhubeka’s Victor Campenaerts—seeing that Qhubeka had the most numbers it would be tactical malpractice not to have a Qhubeka rider follow every single move that would try to go. The attack came to nothing, the breakaway strung out in one long line, but Riesebeek and Campenaerts did not find separation…yet. But with 22km to go, it was Victor Campenaerts’ turn to try and create a gap. It was a perfectly timed attack, Campenaerts launched as a blustering gust of crosswind came upon the group. His attack strung out group, the crosswind threatened to cause an echelon, but all of a sudden Campenaerts and the Giro route turned right to take advantage of a massive tailwind. Only the first couple in line after Campenaerts at that moment could claw up to him: the already mentioned Oscar Riesebeek and Movistar’s Albert Torres. The breakaway was already in the midst of taking the Slovenian circuit for the third and final time of asking, which meant it time for one last passage up the Gornje Cerovo Category3 climb. It was only 1.7km in length, but it averaged 8.5% with a maximum gradient of 15%. It would never trouble any of the GC men, but for a breakaway in a stage finale and after two hard weeks of racing it would be a proper test. Campenaerts, Torres, and Riesebeek went into the climb with a 35-second advantage on the best of the remaining chasers. Up the three leaders rode going full gas, giving it everything to distance the chasers and even find separation from their breakaway companions. But behind on the climb, the strongest of the chasers were coming to the fore. Best among them this day was Intermarche’s Quinten Hermans of Cyclocross fame. It was he that led the chasers and ate into the advantage of the three leaders. Ahead, Campenaerts was the tip of the spear driving the pace, flanked by Riesebeek and Torres. And when they came to the 15% ramp: my, my, Torres made one the most incredible pain-faces any of us have ever seen. Truly, truly, we thought Lorenzo Fortunato yesterday in the final kilometers of the Zoncolan looked in tearful pain…it was nothing compared to Albert Torres’ face today. And alas! Within 50m of the crest of the climb, he cracked and detached from Campenaerts and Riesebeek. There was no catch-back-on over the top or on the descent, Torres had fully blown.
So focused were we all on how the climb would play out, that we had not realized an all too familiar guest on this Giro had come once again. It came first upon the peloton 12 minutes down the road somewhere, then upon the breakaway on this climb, and then minutes later to the finishing line as well. Yes, yet another biblical rainstorm. Ah! ah! Truly, so close to the Adriatic. Perhaps old Neptune, of Tirreno-Adriatico fame, had taken an Olympian-industrial-sized garbage can, filled with the waters of the Adriatic, and poured it onto the whole Giro. Within a snap of the fingers, the rain was coming down so hard it seemed the riders were instantly riding through standing water. And as they descended the roads functioned as treacherous rivers. Behind the peloton all carefully and routinely put on their rain jackets, but these heroes in the breakaway hunting for the stage win had not the luxury for they were already in the heat of battle.
With 15km to go, Campenaerts and Riesebeek had a 28-second gap on what were the best of the chasers: Quinten Hermans, Simone Consonni (Cofidis), Harm Vanhoucke (Lotto Soudal), Dario Cataldo (Movistar), Nikias Arndt (Team DSM), Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo), and the spent Albert Torres was towing a ride on the back of this group. Campenaerts and Riesebeek at the front knew the game, they knew they had to work together to stave off the others, but eventually outfox each other as well. To see these racers risk it all on the wet descents was tense viewing, but for all of these men Grand Tour stage wins rarely come up. Though the Belgian Victor Campenaerts has made himself prominent in the Grand Tours over many years now, surprisingly he still has yet to win a Grand Tour stage for himself—his prominence has almost always been in the service of others. Meanwhile the Dutchman Oscar Riesebeek of the smaller Alpecin-Fenix team has never won a race in his career, period. It was a similar story of little major successes for most of the chasers behind. Thus the hazardous conditions were only another obstacle to victory for these racers who would continue undaunted.
After decent cooperation for the following few kilometers, still Campenaerts’ and Riesebeek’s gap was coming down; and when Campenaerts grabbed a bottle for a swig of water Riesebeek attacked him. It took Campenaerts a mighty effort to claw him back, but he did. At 4.5km to go, they exchanged a few quick words while rotating as a pair once more, but at 3.8km to go on the last rise of the day Riesebeek attacked Campenaerts again—clearly, he did not fancy himself in a sprint finish. Again Campenaerts clawed him back on that rise, and over the top of it with 3km to go Campenaerts counterattacked Riesebeek. There was a treacherous wet descent after this climb and Campenaerts held a 2-second gap on Reisebeek, while the chasers had closed to within 15 seconds. Perhaps Reisebeek, 2 seconds behind, was pulling some clever trickery not instantly closing the gap. With the 2-second gap, Riesebeek had a clear wide-berth on the treacherous wet descent. Then on what remained of the flat for the last 2km of racing, perhaps he really couldn’t close the gap, or perhaps he avoided the cat-and-mousing so that he and Campenaerts went full gas so that they could hold off the chasers behind. It was an ideal pursuit between these two, for it could fit into one camera shot. Surprisingly though, Campenaerts still currently holding the Hour Record was caught by Riesebeek with 1km to go. Because of the chasing pursuit, their gap was out to 22 seconds which would allow for a bit of cat-and-mousing. Riesebeek latched onto Campenaert’s wheel, not daring to come around, no matter how much Campenaerts slowed. They had enough time on the chasers for Campenaerts on the front to slow, but he did not come to a grinding-halt slow-pace. But Riesebeek from behind launched early with over 250m to go. He came around Campenaerts. Perhaps it was the rainy conditions, perhaps it was a fortnight of hard racing, perhaps it was his big-framed body, probably a combination of all, but when Oscar Riesebeek launched his sprint let’s just say there was no resemblance to a certain Pocket-Rocket. Yes, Riesebeek did not have the jump or the speed to distance Campenaerts. Victor Campenaerts came around him in the last 100m of the race to win the sprint by a bike length and take his first Grand Tour stage win.
Victor Campenaerts’ win today is the 3rd stage win for Qhubeka Assos in 5 days at this Giro d’Italia. O! O! How their fortune has turned around so quickly. In November they were assuredly on the brink of folding, almost all their riders signed away already—save basically this Victor Campenaerts and Stage 13 winner Giacomo Nizzolo. Enough funding came in at the last minute to allow them to cobble together a team of underdogs to represent the Qhubeka charity whose sole mission is to donate bicycles to poor children in Africa. Undaunted by the bigger budget teams, these Qhubeka Assos lads began punching above their weight immediately. They were knocking on the doors of big wins all spring, and now here at the Giro the floodgates have opened. Mauro Schmid took the first Qhubeka win on the legendary Strade Bianche stage. Finally, Nizzolo tasted Giro success two days later. And finally here today, Victor Campenaerts has a win of high-quality to accompany all the heavy-beast-of-burden service he has done for others in the past, and all his previous near misses are now fulfilled. Ah! Ah! Isn’t that the way of it in cycling? In the pits, the doldrums, the troughs one day…at the pinnacle of the sport the next.
Cycling Odysseys 