Rome, 30 May 2021 – The Giro d’Italia 2021, edition n.104, closes with the triumph of the Colombian Egan Bernal. In Milan, in the 30.3 km individual time trial, starting from Senago and finishing in Piazza Duomo, the teammate won Filippo Ganna. A double success for the Ineos Grenadier. Second in the standings Damiano Caruso, that after the company on Alpe Motta, ends the Corsa Rosa started as a wingman with the fabric of the champion, in front of the British Simon Yates.
The votes of Angelo Costa
10 a Bernal
Two weeks to build the Giro, the third to defend it with magnificent followers, coming out well from the one day of crisis in Sega di Ala. Perfect path for the Colombian who at the age of 24 already has a Tour and a pink race on the bulletin board: the rest to follow. Assuming his back allows him to face duels at a higher altitude, see Pogacar.
10 to Caruso
The other beautiful side of this Giro, the assistant who becomes captain and carves out a leading role. He deserved it for having always raced with loyalty and for the respect he has earned from everyone: he is the first to know that he is not a champion of the bike, but if he realizes the dreams of a whole career in one fell swoop, it is because he is a champion. as a person.
8 at the Giro
For the path he has proposed, harder and more demanding than expected. For how it was interpreted. For putting all the pieces of the puzzle in place, throwing young people and rewarding those who deserved it. Not bad for a race won by one of the three great convalescents in front of an excellent wingman, and this speaks volumes about the value of the final result.
8 a Nabal
Already he is fresh from a fracture, plus he is not even lucky: he falls three times, precisely because having a wrist that has just been fixed on the bike also takes away a bit of safety. He staggers, but does not give up: arriving as far as Milan, he teaches a lesson on how cycling and fans respect each other and what dignity those who know how to be a champion have even when they don’t win.
8 to Fortunato
As a rookie he closes the Giro in the top sixteen, second Italian in the standings, winning the most demanding stage on the Zoncolan. Not bad for the guy from Castel de Britti, one of the many beautiful faces around. In addition to the classic demonstration that you must not have been an amateur phenomenon to discover yourself as talented racers.
8 a Martinez
Symbol of an Ineos that once again runs like a real battleship and where everyone does theirs: Ganna and Puccio on the plain, Moscon and Narvaez first and Castroviejo at the end uphill. A perfect chessboard, where Martinez gives two winning moves: the shouts of incitement to Bernal in crisis in Sega di Ala and the final rush to remove bonuses in Alpe Motta.
7 to Italy
Like the victories won by our team, one out of three: between the two of Ganna at the opening and closing, those of Vendrame, Nizzolo, Fortunato, Bettiol and Caruso. In the count also the ranking of two veteran specimens, De Marchi two days in pink and Caruso second on the final podium: if this is a cycling in crisis, who knows what to think of others.
7 to the Rai commentary
Always criticized, disastrous in the last edition, the mother of all TV shows a convincing story: disciplined Borgato, first woman to comment, right the windows of Genovesi, punctual interventions by Rizzato and the coach Cassani from the motorbikes, with a Pancani good at running the team from the control room.
6 a Simon Yates
He introduces himself as captain Fracassa, announces that he has changed his strategy and suggests that for two weeks he will be running to save for the third: he must be satisfied with a stage success and a podium behind a true champion but not at the top and a helper. of captains, raising the suspicion that the twin gave the best a month ago.
6 and guest teams
Snubbed and sometimes mistreated, the Italian teams amply justify the wild card, animating the stages from the beginning with escapes that often arrive, but above all they avoid boredom. Between Bardiani Csf, Androni and the rookie Eolo, who also wins a stage, three of them finish the race with only one retreat: as well as good nurseries, they also need serious people.
6 to Almeida
Throw away the Giro the first week in Sestola, also thanks to bad luck. He spends more time to wait for his teammate Evenepoel on the dirt roads as requested by the team. He reappeared in the last week, the best in terms of performance, where he proves to be worth the leading role: if he puts together the last two laps, a podium runner comes out.
6 a Sagan
He returns to the Giro, wins a stage, again the eleventh as in last October, and takes home the cyclamen jersey. He does it as a champion and also with a little gas, because the points classification at the Tour sweats more. Here he also puts us a fine for the threatening attitude towards those who flee at the beginning of the stage: worse than him, those who justify it.
5 and Vlasov
Perfect for half the Giro, where he exits flawlessly from what could be traps for him (above all, the dirt road), the Russian in the mountains acts like the sparkling wine that has lost its bubbles: when you remove the cap, it is out of gas. It gives nothing, if not precious time to those who aspire to the podium: it is still raw material, luckily it has around those who are able to work it.
5 a Evenepoel
He has the merit of making the first week come alive, inventing himself as Bernal’s rival. The vote is not to him, who does everything possible and even concludes his last stage after flying over the guard rail, but to those who thought that after nine months of stop he could start again from the Giro: it’s not hindsight, it was easy even calculate it first.
4 to cyclists
Who knows why for two editions they have had the habit of reducing a stage, trusting the weather forecast, even if not extreme. Having had two Alpine passes cut, among other things as prestigious as the Coppi peak, is a whim that turned out to be an own goal: in addition to the climbs, the image of the cyclist has disappeared and not only proves to be the strongest of all, but also of everything.
4 to the illusionists
Bardet, Carthy, Hindley, Bennett, Almeida himself: reading the list of the ambitious on the eve, they could not have split the world, but something more to show it. It is the usual game of prediction, it will be said, but in a cycling in which young people always attack, whoever is in the rear clinging to the ranking position is more noticeable.
2 to those who are satisfied
There are those who return home by accident (Landa immediately, then Buchmann, finally Ciccone and Evenepoel), while there are those who leave after two stages won because they have to think about Tour and Vuelta. Like Caleb Ewan, who would do nothing wrong if he told it right: in a Giro with little space for sprinters, it almost makes you smile that you use the knee bua as an excuse.
1 to the tv images
The other side of the live broadcast: the timely story of the commentators corresponds to a not always attentive direction, late on a couple of sprints, distracted over many racing episodes then recovered with the replay. You can have a beautiful ride, but failing to show it well only has the opposite effect.
0 to the agitated
Giro also means restart for the public, but in some cases it could be done without: on the hardest climbs, it is a festival of chases, disguises and thrusts, but above all of people without masks. Then it happens that the madman of the Zoncolan repents and launches charitable initiatives to remedy, but if you throw a runner on the ground there is little to apologize.
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