Finally some action! After two weeks of shivering in the rain, the 16th favorite appearedH The stage of the Tour of Italy, won by Joao Almeida, on Tuesday, atop Monte Bondone, ahead of Geraint Thomas, who found the leader’s pink jersey.
The Portuguese and the British are the big winners of this first great mountain trek – five climbs, 5,200m of elevation gain – allowing us a clearer view of the Giro which has long been hazy by bad weather.
Almeida, at the age of 24, achieved the best victory of his career and climbed to the provisional second division of the podium after showing an attacking temperament that we did not know.
Thomas is showing great form two days before he turns 37H Anniversary and now has an 18-second lead over her Portuguese rival in the general classification.
Barring a failure or a new development, the two men must fight for the final victory on Sunday in Rome with the other big favourite, Primo Roglic.
Third in the stage overall, 29 seconds behind Thomas, the Slovenian showed signs of weakness on Tuesday on the endless and steep slopes of Monte Bondone, where he was unable to follow the acceleration of first Almeida, then Thomas, despite the help of his team. His colleague Sep Kos.
But he limited the break, cutting the line 25 seconds behind the duo, giving him the chance to stay in ambush while several terrible stages remain in the program.
Behind the hole was made. The fourth, Italian Damiano Caruso, already points out nearly three minutes overall. And potential podium favorites on Tuesday fell short, like France’s Thibaut Pinot, who fell 9 km from the finish and finished 3 minutes 26 seconds behind the winner.
His Groupama-FDJ teammate Bruno Armirail, who moved up in the pink jersey, only yielded a few hectares earlier, after hanging on to the tails of the best for a long time. In the end, he conceded more than four minutes to logically lose his captain’s jersey, which he wore with pride in two stages.
Heraldry of Courage
“I had an extraordinary three days, maybe this jersey will change a small part of my career,” said Armirail, a teammate who usually fights in gruppettos and who, this time, was still on the front row. The big battle broke out.
And for once, it was Joao Almeida who lit the powder, after much work by the Jumbo and Emirati teams to get back into the morning breakaway, led especially by the French brothers Barrett Peinter, both very prominent from the start of this Giro.
Put into orbit by team-mate Guy Fine, the Portuguese attacked six kilometers from the summit, soon joined by Geraint Thomas, the only one to keep up the pace, but he ended up grilling on the line.
“I felt good, so I took the risk of leaving. It’s a dream come true, I’ve been around it for four years and I’m finally there,” said Almeida, who finally won, after four second places, on stage.
Pure general classification rider, the Portuguese (4H of the Giro in 2020 and 6H In 2021) it appears that she has decided to impose her destiny. “If I have good legs, I will continue to attack,” the white jersey warned the best young man.
But he’ll have to go over the corpse of Geraint Thomas, the 2018 Tour de France winner, who seems to be aging like a fine wine. “It was great to win the stage, but I’m happy to be back in pink,” said the Welshman, who crosses this Giro with the old lion’s phlegm despite the rain and the blows of fate, and who on Tuesday recorded the loss of his new luxury colleague by abandoning Frenchman Pavel Sivakov, following the departure of Filippo Jana and Tao Joeygan Hart.
