Even halfway through the Roncola Alta they are still riding wide on the road, the contenders for the overall victory in the Giro d’Italia – minutes behind the early escapees. It is the last climb in the fifteenth stage, on the penultimate Sunday of the three-week round. But the teams of Geraint Thomas or Primoz Roglic are not making a race. The leaders themselves only interrupt their ‘surplace’ in the last kilometres. The Giro enters the final week with Bruno Armirail in the leader’s jersey. Who? “I didn’t think I would ever wear the pink jersey,” says the average rider of the French Groupama FDJ himself.
Armirail took la maglia rosa by sneaking into a large escape group in the stage won by the German Nico Denz on Saturday, who was allowed to take more than 21 minutes ahead of the top teams. And also on Sunday, Ineos-Grenadiers (Thomas) and Jumbo-Visma (Roglic) left the stage to the attackers without ambition for the overall victory.
Nice battle on the course of the Tour of Lombardy, in which the American Brandon McNulty narrowly defeated the Irishman Ben Healy in the final sprint in Bergamo and Bauke Mollema finished fourth. The group of favorites – with rosette wearer Armirail shortly behind – came in at almost seven minutes. There was again no battle for the overall victory.
In advance, the mountainous route of the fifteenth stage seemed to guarantee fireworks, as is traditional for the penultimate Sunday of the Giro. Good for the viewing figures, good for cycling. But this Giro is everything else. Corona still held house in the peloton, with the main victim of rosette jersey wearer Remco Evenepoel last Sunday. The bad weather also robbed the stage race of tension. Favorite Tao Geoghegan Hart crashed in a wet descent on Wednesday and retired with a broken hip. Friday’s mountain stage had to be shortened from 207 to 75 kilometers. There was hardly any spectacle.
Favorites close together
Still, the final week promises excitement. Behind Armirail the favorites are close together. The Briton Thomas is second at 1.08 minutes. Roglic follows just two seconds behind the 2019 Tour winner. The three-time winner of the Vuelta still has a strong team, with Koen Bouwman and Sam Oomen and his American foreman Sepp Kuss. Thomas has Tymen Arensman as his main helper, who himself is ninth in the standings, at 3.55 minutes.
After Monday’s rest day, a tough mountain stage follows, with 5,200 altimeters and a finish on the dreaded Monte Bondone. There is also a lot of climbing on Thursday and Friday (Tre Cime di Lavaredo). Saturday is an individual time trial over 18.6 kilometers, before the Giro ends with a flat stage in Rome on Sunday.