attack Richard Carapaz in the area of the goal fences and responds Jail Hindley. And who comes out after the couple? Well Mikel Landa. Hindley strikes back. Immediately Landa and Carapaz cover the gap. And when the first and second of the general look at each other, the Basque cyclist starts. He opens a slight distance, it seems that he is leaving, it seems that a few seconds have been cut, which are worth his weight in gold, but shortly after the trio is united again. This is how they reach the goal. So The Giro remains to be seen for the judgment of the Marmolada if we do not have to wait yet for what happens on Sunday in the final time trial in Verona.
It was a stage of flight, much less a decisive day. It was the first of the two days that Landa needed to reduce that minute of disadvantage that takes away the ‘pink jersey’. There was land, above all a port of aúpa on Slovenian territory, since the Giro entered the lands of the absent Tadej Pogacar and Primoz Roglic, to climb the Kolovrat where great things could be done that were not done. The cyclists make their decisions, although many times the spectators do not like them and, unfortunately, when the stage is played in siesta time, they fall asleep on the sofa.
When a breakaway reaches the last climb almost nine minutes ahead, something has gone wrong, no matter how much Bora, Hindley’s team, took control of a stage in which Carapaz lost Richie Porte, indisposed due to gastroenteriris.
The stage was resolved between the quintet of breakaways that overcame all the obstacles of the day, with the victory of the Dutch rider Koen Bouwman, the leader of a mountain classification that he will win without problems.
THE MOMENT OF LEADERS
And back? Well, we had to wait for the last two kilometers for the trio of the general to give away a collection of attacks between them and for Landaof the three, was the one that seemed to have more spark when the climb was almost over, something that, at least, invites illusion this Saturday at the Marmolada. “I’m still optimistic & rdquor;, the Basque cyclist confessed to questions from RAI. Well, it will be necessary to maintain the illusion in a Giro that is not very full of attacks. Rather few. This Saturday is decided in the Marmolada, with cold and rain.
Because the penultimate stage, the queen of this Giro, will be faced with a not very pleasant panorama. 7 degrees and hail are announced in Pordoi and 9 with rain in Marmolada. The day does not come for everything to end in seconds, which, on the other hand, would be a tremendous disappointment. The Giro is a matter of three because any attack beyond the third position that Landa occupies seems like a matter of science fiction. And if any of the fourth and even infinity of the general leaves, it will be because they let him go and because his flight does not cause any headache to the three occupants of the podium.
FOR NOW, WITHOUT PASSING
It is not being, for now, a Giro to go down in history. Only one serious attack is remembered, en route to Turin, by Carapaz and for that reason alone he has earned the right to wear pink. Hindley has always ridden the wheel of the Ecuadorian cyclist and Landa’s attacks have come when there was no more ground left for them to go further. In the Marmolada it will be different. The Giro deserves it. The race cannot be left for everything to be resolved in a few seconds in a time trial. If in the Marmolada a stage for history is lived – and there are all the elements on the table – it will be worth waiting almost until the end. Landa has the last word.