THE Australian team’s big hope for glory in the Giro has fallen off the pace after just three stages, writes JOHN TREVORROW:
MONDAY’S third stage of the Giro d’Italia from the Sicilian town of Enna to the summit of Mt Etna erupted into action before the flag was even dropped.
Equal race favourite Geraint Thomas (Ineos-Grenadiers) crashed in the neutral section when he hit a stray bidon (drink bottle) and although he seemed OK when the race actually started that was not the case and he was dropped from the main peloton with 45 kms to travel and lost more than 12 minutes and all hope of a final victory.
The other favourite Simon Yates, of the Australian team Mitchelton-Scott, also found himself in trouble and was distanced from the chasing group nine kms from the summit of the volcano on the slopes of the final climb. The Englishman finished 4.27 behind brilliant winner Jonathan Caicedo (EF Pro Cycling) who burst clear from the breakaway group to win his first ever race outside his home country of Ecuador and only missed taking the leader’s Maglia Rosa by 100th of a second from new leader, Portugal’s Joao Almeida (Deceuninck-Quickstep).
Yates is now 3.46 from the lead and, more importantly, more than 2 ½ minutes behind his main rivals for final victory ,Italian Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo) and Dutchman Steven Kruijswijk (Team Jumbo-Visma).
With nearly three weeks and many monster climbs to come this is not insurmountable but it makes it very tough.
“It was about limiting our losses,” the Mitchelton-Scott sports director, Matt White, said. “It’s a long race, everyone has a bad day. Unfortunately for us it’s early in the race. We’re looking at the race from a different angle. Now we’re coming from behind.”
“The Giro is always won in the last week, it’s always a brutal finish and there’s a long time between now and then. We’ll reassess, see what’s happened and then take it day by day, as clichéd as it is,” White said.
Best of the Australians was Jai Hindlay (Sunweb) in 19th spot only 1.37 seconds down. The winner of the Jayco Herald Sun Tour this year is still right in touch with the main GC contenders. Next was Lucas Hamilton (Mitchelton-Scott) 25th at 2.48 seconds. His teammate Jack Haig also rode a solid race staying with team leader Yates in a valiant attempt to keep him in touch.
Another strong Aussie performance came from Chris Harper (Jumbo-Visma) who came in 37th, 4 min 59 sec down but helped team leader Kruijswijk stay in touch.
No one really knew how this crazy season would pan out. It seemed unrealistic that the powers that be could squeeze three Grand Tours and all the one-day classics into just three months. But so far the results have been spectacular delivering some of the best racing ever seen.
Over the weekend we saw the world’s oldest bike race Liege Bastogne Liege held in Belgium. This is one of the five one-day monuments and is usually held just before the Giro in April.
Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) won in an extraordinary five-man sprint to the line.
New World champion Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-QuickStep) believed he had victory sewn up and throwing up his arms up in triumph, but the celebrations were premature, and Roglic pipped him right on the line in a photo finish. Alaphilippe was then disqualified back to fifth place for an irregular sprint when he clashed with eventual runner up Marc Hirschi (Sunweb). Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar (Slo) (UAE Team Emirates) was third.
Embed from Getty ImagesIn the women’s Liege, Aussie Grace Brown (Mitchelton Scott) stormed home for a career best second place behind former world champion Lizzie Deignan (Trek-Segafredo).
Also on the weekend in another one-day monument we saw Aussie Harry Sweeney take the chocolates in the under 23 Giro di Lombardia. The young Queenslander recently signed to join the world Tour and next year will become a teammate of Caleb Ewan at Belgian team Lotto Soudal.
Giro stage 3
1 | Jonathan Caicedo (Ecu) EF Pro Cycling | 4:02:33 |
2 | Giovanni Visconti (Ita) Vini Zabu’ KTM | 0:00:21 |
3 | Harm Vanhoucke (Bel) Lotto Soudal | 0:00:30 |
4 | Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb | 0:00:39 |
5 | Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team | 0:00:51 |
6 | Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe | |
7 | Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Trek-Segafredo | |
8 | Jonathan Castroviejo Nicolas (Spa) Ineos Grenadiers | |
9 | Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) NTT Pro Cycling | |
10 | Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma | 0:00:56 |
11 | Joao Almeida (Por) Deceuninck-Quickstep | 0:01:03 |
12 | Pello Bilbao (Spa) Bahrain McLaren | |
13 | Antonio Pedrero (Spa) Movistar Team | 0:01:23 |
14 | Patrick Konrad (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe | 0:01:29 |
15 | Hermann Pernsteiner (Aut) Bahrain McLaren | |
16 | Fausto Masnada (Ita) CCC Team | 0:01:31 |
17 | Sergio Samitier Samitier (Spa) Movistar Team | 0:01:37 |
18 | Louis Meintjes (RSA) NTT Pro Cycling | |
19 | Jai Hindley (Aus) Team Sunweb | |
20 | Brandon McNulty (USA) UAE Team Emirates | |
21 | Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) CCC Team | |
22 | James Knox (GBr) Deceuninck-Quickstep | 0:01:52 |
23 | Gianluca Brambilla (Ita) Trek-Segafredo | 0:02:11 |
24 | Tao Geoghegan Hart (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers | 0:02:33 |
25 | Lucas Hamilton (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott | 0:02:48 |
26 | Giovanni Carboni (Ita) Bardiani CSF Faizane’ | 0:03:18 |
27 | Stéphane Rossetto (Fra) Cofidis | 0:03:23 |
28 | Aurélien Paret Peintre (Fra) AG2R la Mondiale | 0:03:42 |
29 | Koen Bouwman (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma | 0:04:17 |
30 | Jack Haig (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott | 0:04:22 |
31 | Simon Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott | |
32 | Tony Gallopin (Fra) AG2R la Mondiale | |
33 | Jaakko Hanninen (Fin) AG2R la Mondiale | |
34 | Geoffrey Bouchard (Fra) AG2R la Mondiale | |
35 | Antonio Nibali (Ita) Trek-Segafredo | |
36 | Martijn Tusveld (Ned) Team Sunweb | 0:04:59 |
37 | Chris Harper (Aus) Team Jumbo-Visma | |
38 | Daniel Navarro Garcia (Spa) Israel Start-Up Nation | 0:05:32 |
39 | Oscar Rodriguez Garaicoechea (Spa) Astana Pro Team | 0:05:48 |
40 | Tanel Kangert (Est) EF Pro Cycling | 0:05:55 |
GC after stage 3
1 | Joao Almeida (Por) Deceuninck-Quickstep | 7:44:25 |
2 | Jonathan Caicedo (Ecu) EF Pro Cycling | |
3 | Pello Bilbao (Spa) Bahrain McLaren | 0:00:37 |
4 | Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team Sunweb | 0:00:42 |
5 | Harm Vanhoucke (Bel) Lotto Soudal | 0:00:53 |
6 | Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Trek-Segafredo | 0:00:55 |
7 | Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) NTT Pro Cycling | 0:00:59 |
8 | Brandon McNulty (USA) UAE Team Emirates | 0:01:11 |
9 | Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana Pro Team | 0:01:13 |
10 | Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma | 0:01:15 |
11 | Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe | 0:01:26 |
12 | Patrick Konrad (Aut) Bora-Hansgrohe | |
13 | Jai Hindley (Aus) Team Sunweb | 0:01:27 |
14 | Fausto Masnada (Ita) Deceuninck-Quickstep | 0:01:32 |
15 | Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) CCC Team | 0:01:38 |
16 | James Knox (GBr) Deceuninck-Quickstep | 0:01:40 |
17 | Hermann Pernsteiner (Aut) Bahrain McLaren | 0:01:42 |
18 | Antonio Pedrero (Spa) Movistar Team | 0:01:50 |
19 | Louis Meintjes (RSA) NTT Pro Cycling | 0:01:59 |
20 | Sergio Samitier Samitier (Spa) Movistar Team | 0:02:06 |
21 | Gianluca Brambilla (Ita) Trek-Segafredo | 0:02:07 |
22 | Lucas Hamilton (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott | 0:02:41 |
23 | Giovanni Visconti (Ita) Vini Zabu’ KTM | 0:03:10 |
24 | Tao Geoghegan Hart (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers | 0:03:12 |
25 | Simon Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott | 0:03:46 |
26 | Tony Gallopin (Fra) AG2R la Mondiale | 0:04:01 |
27 | Aurélien Paret Peintre (Fra) AG2R la Mondiale | 0:04:11 |
28 | Giovanni Carboni (Ita) Bardiani CSF Faizane’ | 0:04:25 |
29 | Chris Harper (Aus) Team Jumbo-Visma | 0:04:37 |
30 | Jack Haig (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott | 0:04:39 |
JOHN TREVORROW is a multiple Australian champion road racer and Olympian who has been doing media commentary at the Tour de France for more than 20 years.
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