Canazei—Sega di Ala, 193km
The day was almost 200km long, and it would come down to two fierce Category1 climbs in the last 50km of the stage. The peloton would tackle the Passo di San Valentino climb, followed by a long descent, and then they would climb for a summit finish up the Sega di Ala which has never before been used in the Giro d’Italia. It was a large breakaway of 19 men, but they were kept on a short leash by Simon Yates’ Team BikeExchange. The weather was finally beautiful for a change, and apparently BikeExchange were clearly confident in Yates’ prospects today to potentially bag the stage or take significant time on rivals. The Passo di San Valentino climb proved rather uneventful besides that the breakaway shrunk down to just 4 elite men riding for their lives already to stave off the peloton. The 4 riders were Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation), Gianni Moscon (Ineos Grenadiers) on home roads, Antonio Pedrero (Movistar), and Geoffrey Bouchard (AG2R) wearing the Blue Jersey. Bouchard was the one at most pains to keep up with the pace Dan Martin was setting, but Bouchard was the first over the top to take the maximum King of the Mountains Points. It was actually the descent of the Passo di San Valentino that proved more eventful.
No camera caught it, but in the very reduced peloton of favorites, probably about halfway down the group, someone crashed on a corner of the descent causing ten or a dozen others to crash or be hung up by it. Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-Quickstep) was rolled up on a railing, at least two BikeExchange domestiques were down for the count, and at least two Treks as well—one of them being 6th on the General Classification (GC) Guilio Ciccone. Ciccone had to pedal and give it everything on the descent, and especially in the short valley at the bottom between the two climbs. He had sacrificed quite a bit of energy just to rejoin the group of GC favorites, it was a day of rotten luck for him: a mechanical towards the top of the Valentino caused him to begin the descent too far down in position, and thus it was inevitable he would get caught up in anything before him. But Ciccone was not the main story of the day, there were fireworks on this Sega di Ala climb.
Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo) won on this Sega di Ala in the 2013 edition of the Giro del Trentino, and apparently it has been called the Mortirolo of Lake Garda—ah! ah! surely a formidable reputation! At 11km long with an average gradient of 10% with unfortunately steep ramps reaching grades of 17% interspersed in the middle of the climb, surely this would be yet another great summit finish. What was left of the breakaway began the climb with less than a 90 second advantage, but Dan Martin was undeterred—he had no choice but to try and give it his best shot. He set to work immediately riding the maximum effort he could measure all the way to the finish line. Martin had lost quite a bit of time in the first fortnight of this Giro, with all GC ambitions shot his biggest desire was to take a stage. Often a star of the Ardennes, Dan Martin has not been to the Giro in many years, but already he has won stage of the Tour and one at the Vuelta as well. If he could take the stage today, he would become a part of that super cool club of riders that have won stages in all three Grand Tours—there are just over 100 members at this point. Only Movistar’s Pedrero could keep up with Dan Martin’s pace for just 1 kilometer of this climb, Martin did not even look back to acknowledge his presence—so laser focused was he on the mission at hand. He knew this was a Herculean effort his breakaway companions were not capable of helping him achieve.
Behind, most of Yates’ BikeExchange domestiques had hit the deck in the crash and were out of action for the rest of the stage. In the short valley of the descent, it was two Quickstep riders—Pieter Serry and James Knox—who had been dropped from the breakaway leaders and sat up to now ride on the front and empty the tank for their teammate Joao Almeida who had a chance to win the stage. When the peloton of GC favorites hit the climb, it was Astana-Premier Tech that came to the front to work for their team leader Aleksandr Vlasov who was high on GC. But within a kilometer, Astana swung off the front, because Vlasov was struggling already—clearly having an off day. It was the Ineos Grenadiers that then had to take on pacing duties because no one else would. They did not set too relentless of a pace, and that was in the best interests of Dan Martin who was able to maintain his 90 second advantage out front. Soon after Vlasov’s struggles began, Guilio Ciccone joined him dangling out the back for the effort to chase back on after the crash was catching up to him. And soon after this, EF’s team leader high on GC, Hugh Carthy, was also suffering and dropping out the back.
So continued the weeding out process on this climb. With 4km to go, Dan Martin still had a 1:20 advantage on the peloton…until Quickstep’s Joao Almeida attacked. Having lost time in week one, and then having been at the service of ailing Remco in week two, Almeida sat a very distant 10th on GC to Egan Bernal and the Grenadiers’ quest for Pink. So the Grenadiers allowed him to attack, and maintained their tempo as if or because the situation was under control—such is the way of things in the third week of a Grand Tour. Almeida began the day a full 10 minutes down on GC; he could not trouble Bernal, but he could trouble some of the riders in between. Whether it was to neutralize Almeida or just to strike out for time or the stage win or even the Giro overall cannot be known, but Simon Yates was feeling good this day. Soon after Almeida’s attack with 3.8km to go Simon Yates fully launched himself. Though Yates was 4:20 down on him to start the day, immediately Egan Bernal wearing the Pink Jersey jumped onto his wheel despite still having three teammates left. But one of those Grenadier teammates dared to hop over with Bernal, the one who has proven his top Lieutenant this Giro: Lieutenant Dan-i Martinez. With these riders away, the peloton of favorites imploded. Those with nothing left faded away, those with something scrambled to get back into contention while others went into damage control-mode. Out of these not yet named men, Bahrain Victorious’ Damiano Caruso rode the best loss-limiting pace he could—remember 33 years of age, the old Italian, a GC chance like this in his home Grand Tour will not come again! At this point in the climb, the gradients were the most ferocious, though less than a 4km Pursuit was left, this stage was by no means over.
Within 200m, Yates with the Grenadier pair of Bernal and Martinez had caught up with Almeida, and the quartet was now within a minute of Dan Martin still riding for his life ahead from the breakaway. Though Yates had caught him, Almeida was by no means done yet: he attacked again. And once again Yates responded while dragging the Ineos pair like anchors weighing him down—but in reality, though Yates was not making time on the GC men in his group, he was moving up on all the many already dropped GC men behind. Dan Martin’s gap was down to 50 seconds. And then with 3km to go, this Giro really roared back into life. Not only were all the fans all out in full force cheering in the riders’ faces in classic intimate and boisterous fashion to make COVID-19 seem a thing of the past, Simon Yates attacked again…and Egan Bernal wearing the Pink Jersey could not follow.
Bulletproof and invincible Bernal has looked all Giro, but now, now Simon Yates and Joao Almeida were riding away from him on the steepest parts of this Sega di Ala climb. Lieutenant Dan-i Martinez moved in front of Bernal to pace him to the line and limit the losses—a loyal teammate and compatriot he is! Ah! But the pace Lieutenant Dan began to set was still too high for Egan Bernal wearing the Pink Jersey. Ai! Ai! What was going on? Egan Bernal was pedaling squares, in a world of hurt. He had no momentum and barely even forward motion. Behind Damiano Caruso came riding his steady tempo. Even then, Bernal struggled to keep up with that pace. Ah! Ah! But what was causing Egan to crack so? Many other rivals were having a bad day, it seemed the only four or five men on a better day than Egan were next to him or out front. But at this point, in all of our heads were flashing recent Hectorian Giro collapses—so brutal the final week always is! And most in our minds was that day at the Tour last year where Bernal’s back problems were first revealed when his GC campaign went out with a whimper on the Grand Colombier. O! O! Just when all thought the back problems were behind him, for Bernal had so thoroughly dominated this Giro. No, no, now the race was open once again, Almeida and Yates now had Bernal on the ropes. It was in that instant, captured by a plethora of cameras and to be immortalized for years, Lieutenant Dan-i Martinez turned around on his bike and shook his fist at his team leader Egan exhorting him on like all the other rabid tifosi around them. Perhaps he said: “Egan! Egan! Do not give up now! We have come too far to blow this all now! True Champions must overcome obstacles such as these! Stay on my wheel, I shall shepherd you to the finish. These men are still minutes back on you. We must stay calm, we shall limit our losses and stay in control of this Giro that you have dominated so thoroughly.”
Up front, Yates and Almeida rode on together, being fueled by the time gaps they were receiving. For Yates: finally, finally he was on the right side of a Giro-cracking—it was now he who was putting time into the Pink Jersey. Yes, yes, it was he, Simon Yates, who was now the one causing chaos at the Giro. Ah! But he was not alone, he was riding neck and neck with Joao Almeida; and still out front it was Dan Martin who was trying to outrun this chaos that threatened to engulf him like a wildfire. With 2km to go, Dan Martin had now only 28 seconds on Yates and Almeida, and 1:06 on Bernal, Martinez, and Caruso. Still for that next kilometer, Bernal and Caruso were straining and struggling to climb the road like overburdened slaves building the Pyramids. While ahead Yates and Almeida went from strength to strength with the bit between their teeth: Bernal suffering behind, and Dan Martin being reeled in ahead—ah! ah! they were in their element, and the early-day faithful pace-making of both their teams were being rewarded.
With 1km to go, Dan Martin still had 21 seconds to the pair, but behind Bernal’s group was now around 90 seconds back. To Bernal’s rescue actually came the unexpected flying Basque Bahrain Victorious rider Pello Bilbao to help assist his team leader Damiano Caruso for the final kilometer. Luckily also for Bernal, the steepest gradients and 17% ramps were pasted, the final kilometer averaged only 5%. In that last kilometer with the work of Bilbao and Lieutenant Dan-i Martinez, Bernal and Caruso’s group was able to staunch the bleeding to Yates and Almeida ahead. At the very front of the race, Dan Martin rode his heart out all the way to the line, never letting up for fear that at any second one of the chasers would come around. In the end, he did only beat Almeida by 13 seconds, but the win was all he wanted. Hats off to you, Dan Martin, that was a phenomenal ride. And congratulations, you have now entered that exclusive club of riders to win a stage of all three Grand Tours. Behind, in that last kilometer Almeida actually cracked Yates in the pursuit of Dan Martin and time. Almeida finished 13 seconds behind Dan Martin, but it was a supremely valiant ride—surely, no fault could be found in it—this day he really did have diamonds in his legs. Yates may really have pushed his limits too far and cracked, or he had maintained the quick tempo for the last kilometer, because he finished 31 seconds behind Martin. Almeida proved stronger on the day, but it was Yates who dealt the great psychological blow to Egan Bernal the impervious in Pink no longer. In the end, Damiano Caruso came over the line 1:20 down on Martin, 50 seconds down on Simon Yates; and Egan Bernal alongside his Lieutenant Dan-i Martinez came in 3 seconds later, 1:23 down on Dan Martin, 53 seconds down on Simon Yates. Thus Simon Yates having faded to 5th on GC on the bad weather Passo Giau stage now jumps back up to 3rd on GC only a minute down on Damiano Caruso who still maintains 2nd on GC. Bernal still maintains his 2:20 lead on Caruso, and his lead on Simon Yates is now 3:23. It is still a relatively comfortable lead on both his rivals in actuality. Yet with still big two mountain stages and a deciding time trial to go, Yates has found a chink in Bernal’s armor—shall he pry it open more in these final days? Was it the back effecting Bernal? Was this just a hopefully-one-off bad day for him—and many other GC riders further behind? Time shall tell, but now Egan Bernal’s grip on Pink no longer seems a stranglehold or already sewn up. This Giro is not yet over.
Cycling Odysseys 