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Co-favorites Geraint Thomas and Simon Yates are left behind. The small audience on the third stage also shows: Sicily is not really a cycling paradise.
On the way to Etna there were no large crowds of fans, and protective masks were often in their pockets.
The volcano was covered in mist, rain clouds, and smoke. At their feet, a colorful band of professional cyclists and support vehicles snaked through the frozen lava blocks. In the villages in the lower part of the volcano, only a few residents briefly interrupted their daily activities to greet the platoon. Some wore masks, half the people did not.
The Sicilian regional government had issued an order that each resident must have a mask on hand to be able to wear it in front of their mouth and nose when there are large concentrations of people. There were no such gatherings in Belpasso, Nicolosi and the other communities at the foot of Mount Etna. So it is understandable that the piece often stayed in my pocket. The response from the rather small audience showed: Sicily is not really a cycling paradise.
A shark in the headwind
Even the most famous Sicilian cyclist cannot change that. Vincenzo Nibali, who grew up 100 kilometers from Mount Etna, showed himself from his combative side. With two attempts in the last three kilometers uphill, he broke the group of favorites. He led his competitors Steven Kruijswijk and Rafal Majka to the red, and is suddenly in the business of winning the Tour of Italy.
Saturday seemed to have ended his dreams of a great triumph. The headwind stopped the “Shark of Messina” in the time trial downhill from Monreale to Palermo. He lost more than a minute to Geraint Thomas, his most famous rival. Two days later everything was different in this Giro, which was a crazy show in the first week.
Because when Nibali competed on Etna, again in a headwind, Thomas and his British compatriot Simon Yates were already a few minutes behind him. And they were deep in red. Thomas had to pay tribute to a fall before the start of the race. At first the peloton was courteously considerate of the Welshman, who seemed to be able to keep up for more than 100 kilometers from the stage. But at the beginning of the ascent to Etna, he suddenly fell back. The 2018 Tour de France winner was sold out.
Filippo Ganna, teammate and proud wearer of the pink jersey, approached his captain within sight of the brake lights of the convoy of vehicles behind the group of favorites. A brief acceleration ended this recovery effort. The tattered T-shirt, his head down, metal grilles around him, behind which no one stood: this is how Thomas experienced the end of this third stage. And at the same time the end of his dream of winning the Giro.
Yates wasn’t too bad. His theft came a little later than Thomas’s. About 8.5 km from the finish line, he lost the connection. His deficit of 4:22 minutes over Ecuadorian stage winner Jonathan Caicedo and 3:21 over Nibali & Co. remained limited. The symbolic maximum punishment also reached him. As he headed towards the finish line, the first drivers approached him, who, after a short snack from the supervisors, headed toward his team buses.
There was no explanation for Yates’ failure. No falls, no damage, no illness were behind his poor performance. With a deficit of 3:46 on the new general leader Joao Almeida and of 2:51 on Nibali, the best placed of the favorites, he is not completely out of the race. On Wednesday he was presented with an opportunity for another turnaround of the classification: shortly before the end of the fifth stage, he had to master the 24.2 km long and up to 18 percent steep climb up to the Valico Monte Scuro of 1,618 meters. Tall.
A rapidly changing scenario invites this twist: whoever is up may be down the next day. This is exciting for the audience, but challenging for the participants. Disappointments must be removed quickly. Because despite being behind, you can stalk the bad luck of others.
The question also arises as to what effects the long break in competition during the lockdown had on the resilience and endurance of drivers. The Tour de France already offered unknown descents. The early days of the Giro reinforce the impression that the performance base is less solid than in normal years. Pressure to put yourself in the right light on the tight competition schedule also plays a role.
Therefore, experience could play a decisive role in the management of sinusoidal performance curves. Nibali, just under 36 and 16 in the professional circus, and Jakob Fuglsang, just a few months younger and almost as long a professional, currently 18 seconds behind Nibali, have an advantage in this regard.
One less stressor
However, you should not underestimate Almeida, the new general leader. The 22-year-old Portuguese is considered a great talent. Most recently, Almeida’s classmate Tadej Pogacar and Egan Bernal, who is only one year older, took the overall victory at the Tour de France in 2019.
For the moment, however, an old warrior appears to be the man of the day. Sicilian Nibali has shown almost incredible consistency in the history of the Giro. He has always been on the podium in his six starts in the last ten years, winning twice and taking second and third place two more times. With another win on the tour, he could catch up with folk hero Gino Bartali on the balance sheet. He won the Giro three times and the Tour de France twice. In addition to the two Giro wins, Nibali has a Tour and Vuelta victory on the count, he’s driving for a place in history. This prospect could be an asset on this tour of Italy that started so frantically.
For Nibali there is no stressor in his home career. At the Giro, the strict two-case rule of the Tour de France does not apply to the corona virus. The director of the Giro, Mauro Vegni, made it clear that he would not necessarily exclude a team in the case of two positive cases of Covid 19. He said: “When someone is positive, I isolate them. And I keep testing. Every day. With the positive and with everyone around him, the whole team. And if necessary, for three or four days in a row. I review them, but I don’t send the team home right away. ”This is where the Giro stands out from the tour, and it’s most exciting anyway.
