Featured image courtesy of BettiniPhoto©2021
The 2021 Giro d’Italia has reached its halfway mark, week two in full swing. The high mountains are fast approaching with flatter terrain suited to the fast men now in the history books. From Stages 11 to 13, the Giro has been far from calm with a key Tuscan stage featuring gravel roads, an Apennine stage to Bagno Di Romagna and the final pan flat opportunity for the sprinters in Verona.
Nizzolo ends his drought
After 11 successive second places in sprint finishes, Giacomo Nizzolo finally wins a stage at the Giro d’Italia. A late attack by Jumbo-Visma’s Edoardo Affini did trigger a very intense finish but in the end the current Italian and European road champion came good.
Winning the points jersey twice at past editions can always be seen as an achievement but to go for so long without a stage win can be draining scenario for a sprinter. It’s a mental game and at long last Giacomo Nizzolo has won it. 16 results in the top three on a stage, 35 top-10 finishes, now a stage victory in Verona. Affini himself finished second, Peter Sagan in third, Israel Start-Up Nation’s Davide Cimolai in fourth and for both Fernando Gaviria and Verona home boy Elia Viviani, it was another disappointing day – Gaviria even lost his saddle!
Giacomo Nizzolo (below) winning Stage 13 also adds to what has been a welcome few days for Team Qhubeka-ASSOS. Nizzolo’s team-mates did everything to deliver him to the line but credit must also go to Mauro Schmid for his win on Stage 11. The first stage out of the rest day, a Strade Bianche gravel road stage that surprisingly allowed a breakaway to go all the way. Schmid’s victory becomes his first professional stage win, to take it on a stage for the ages – chapeau sir!
The dust roads unsettle the GC contenders
Going into Stage 11 race leader Egan Bernal had a 14 second lead over Deceuninck-Quick Step’s Remco Evenepoel, the GC top-10 separated by just one minute two seconds. Until the gravel roads of Tuscany came calling. For every GC contender, stages with challenging surfaces are stressful but can be a chance to take advantage. That’s exactly what Bernal and INEOS Grenadiers did by applying the pressure with Filippo Ganna motoring the pace at one point, the likes of Davide Formolo and Dan Martin left way behind and unable to keep pace as a result.
Away from Mauro Schmid’s fantastic stage win, the big talking point in Montalcino was Remco Evenepoel losing over two minutes to Bernal. Others such as Marc Soler (now out of the race), Giulio Ciccone, Hugh Carthy and Simon Yates lost a handful of seconds but for Carthy and Yates they do remain in the hunt.
Going into the stage, the question was always going to be whether anyone could take time on Bernal. Could anyone get close to taking the pink jersey off his shoulders? In the end, the opposite happened – the Colombian extending his lead to 45 seconds over Astana’s Aleksandr Vlasov. Another rider who had a road day among the dust was Emanuel Buchmann, the German attacking on the Passo del Lume Spento and moving nine places up the GC to sixth overall.
There is a question as to whether testing roads such as the cobbles of Paris Roubaix at the Tour or dusty gravel tracks in Tuscany should actually feature in Grand Tours. It is a question that must put rider safety first, but in actual fact it is important that GC contenders are put under some amount of pressure. It is the mark of a champion to perform on every terrain.
Vendrame victorious as the shark enters the water
Stage 12 from Siena to Bagno Di Romagna was always going to be a tiresome day after the gravel roads of Tuscany. 212 km was perhaps too long but nonetheless a fight to get in the break was actually quite entertaining to watch. 14 riders made it up the road, allowed a big time gap, and in the end AG2R’s Andrea Vendrame outsprinted Team DSM’s Chris Hamilton to win the biggest stage of his career. Victories at Tro Bro Leon in 2019 and a stage at the Pays de la Loire will always be memorable for Vendrame, but at a Grand Tour there is nothing bigger!
It was also a day of taking risks for the ‘shark’ of Messina Vincenzo Nibali. Attacking the Passo del Carnaio descent was vintage Nibali, the best descender of his generation, the aim to put INEOS Grenadiers and others under pressure. Taking the race on after Giulio Ciccone lost time, to see Trek-Segafredo put others to the sword was exactly what fans want to see – taking a risk, having a go, it’s for entertainment purposes. Seven seconds was what Vincenzo Nibali took off other GC contenders including Egan Bernal.
If past Giro’s are to go by then counting Vincenzo Nibali out as making a huge impact on this race is not a wise move. It would take something quite extraordinary considering Nibali’s recent wrist injury and his age, but nothing is impossible. In 2016 just one moment of disaster for Steven Kruijswijk saw Nibali win the Giro despite being over four minutes behind the Dutchman – the Giro is never won until it’s won.
For Vendrame (below) though the day belonged to him and for AG2R the Giro could get better with Geoffrey Bouchard currently in the maglia azzurra as ‘King of the Mountains’.
INEOS are still in control but for how much longer?
Stage 12 to Bagno Di Romagna was pure INEOS Grenadier race plan in action. Over the Team Sky years fans have been used to the team lining up the climbs, controlling the pace doing everything to stop attacks.
A display of dominance on the Stage 11 gravel roads saw Egan Bernal extend his lead and right now their grip on the race looks very hard to stop. The one moment that will encourage rival teams was the pressure Nibali and Trek-Segafredo exerted on the Carnaio descent. Chasing Nibali did lead to Gianni Moscon hitting the deck, totally unavoidable and unnecessary. Taking the risk and taking the race to the INEOS Grenadiers is exactly how other GC teams have got to do in the coming days.
If Egan Bernal can pull off a Giro d’Italia triumph without putting a foot wrong for the entire three weeks, it would be a truly astonishing feat considering the back injury he has suffered with since last year’s Tour defence.
Attacking INEOS is the only thing others have to do. Now is the time to see how good the INEOS Grenadiers really are.
The terrain suited for the sprinters is over, the Dolomites are on their way waiting to cast their shadow. Tricky, steep and just waiting to cause suffering. Can Egan Bernal pull it off? Stages 6 and 9 in week one did not see huge gaps between the genuine contenders for pink, Monte Zoncolan on Stage 14 will be the first big test to see who has the legs to win the Giro and finish on the podium.
