Einer Rubio and Santiago Buitrago will seek to take advantage of the tough stages that will take place between today and Saturday, to get a place in the top ten of the individual general classification of the Giro d’Italia.
The man from Boyacá is the best of the beetles in box 12 at 5:43 behind the leader Geraint Thomas, while the man from Bogotá marches 14 at 7:21.
Today, the cyclists will compete in the first of the three decisive stages in the Dolomites, with 161 km between Oderzo and the Val di Zoldo, very close to the Austrian border, with four ascents on the program, two of them first category (La Crosetta and Fercella Cibiana) and as many second class (Coi and Val di Zoldo), almost consecutive and concentrated in the last ten kilometres, short but very explosive, with slopes of up to 19% unevenness.
Tomorrow will be even worse, with a gruesome route to the Tre Cime di Lavaredo and its 2,304 m altitude, the highest point of the 106th edition of the race.
And, as if that were not enough, on Saturday everything will be decided in the 18.6 km time trial on Saturday, with Monte Lussari and its 7.3 km of ascent at an average gradient of 12.1%.
Yesterday, before facing the decisive stages in the Dolomites, the Giro d’Italia was granted a day of relative calm that ended with a sprint in which the Italian Alberto Dainese (DSM) won.
The route invited this: 197 km of false flat descending between Pergine Valsugana and Caorle, without a single mountainous difficulty in this 17th stage of the Italian race… and pleasant weather, which for the first time in this edition gave a truce to the battered cyclists.
Conditions that, as is usual in cycling in this type of stages, benefited the escape of a small group (four riders) and the control of the sprinters’ teams to catch the escapees at the last moment and not waste energy facing the sprint.
In the last straight, with Mark Cavendish badly placed and out of contention for the stage, everything seemed decided in favor of the Jayco AlUla team, when the Austrian Lukas Postlberger, in a great job, carried Michael Matthews and the experienced cyclist Australian only had to make the effort in the final 200 meters to take the victory.
But those final meters took forever for Matthews, who saw how he was surpassed at the finish line by Dainese and by fellow Italian Jonathan Milan (Bahrain).
The judges, however, had to resort to the ‘photo-finish’ to decide the winner of the day, since none of the three runners dared to raise their arms given the slightest margin between them when passing over the line.
“It’s crazy. So far the Giro was not happening as she had wanted. Last week I was very sick. I had digestive problems and it was hard for me to breathe. Today was the first day I had a good feeling… and I won. I am very happy”, declared Dainese, 25, who already won a stage in the Giro last year.
Before the next three decisive stages to define the final winner of the race on Sunday in Rome, the British Geraint Thomas (Ineos) maintains the pink jersey of the race leader, with 19 and 29 seconds advantage over the Portuguese Joao Almeida (UAE) and the Slovenian Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma).
“The day had nothing to do with what we have experienced so far. It was good weather and hot at the end. Looks good. It was perfect to save strength before the three stages that await us”, congratulated Thomas, who will be 37 years old today dressed in pink.
The veteran Welsh cyclist, winner of the Tour de France in 2018, was referring to the two weeks that the riders have lived since they left Fossacesia Marina, on the Adriatic coast, on May 6, with cold, rain and wind that decimated a squad that also suffered the ravages of falls and covid-19.