He Italy spin This Tuesday enters the decisive week. He does it without emotion after hardly anything has happened in the first 15 days of competition except for Remco Evenepoel’s victories in the two time trials passed. However, the 23-year-old Belgian phenomenon had to leave the test due to the covid with the feeling that the Italian round, which rests this Monday, was left orphaned, injured without its main favorite and was entering a tedious phase of the race. that she is forced to go out in four of the six stages that remain to be disputed.
What has gone wrong in the Giro?
The Giro has been accustomed to centralizing all the hardness in recent days for a few years. Thus makes it the toughest of the three big rounds by stages. But this does not become synonymous with emotion, since the favorites are letting most of the days go by with the feeling that they are scared of what is yet to come. Possibly distribute the key stages more, as they do Tour and Return, it would be a solution since it is not the first time that it happens. The same thing happened in 2020 and 2022, and only the genius of Egan Bernalwinner in 2021, saved the race two years ago.
Why haven’t the cyclists who bet on the show gone?
The formula of Giro-Tour double it’s already outdated. No one else has won the Italian and French rounds since he did. Marco Pantani in 1998. And the truth is there is little to praise about his victory in a Grande Boucle marked by the greatest doping scandal of the history of cycling with police arrests, runners’ strike, suspended stages and persecutions between journalists and participants due to the news of withdrawals. The cyclists who put on a real show, like Tadej Pogacarwho also fell in Liège and would not have been able to run in Italy, Jonas Vingegaardand together with them, Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert, have been reserved for the Tour. Last year van der poel He was one of the attractions of the Giro but he arrived dead in France and ended up abandoning.
Cousin Roglic He has always been an attacking and maverick cyclist, and yet in this Giro he is riding with a low profile. According to what they say from Italy, he was affected by the fall that led to the abandonment of Tao Geoghegan Hart. In addition, tactically, it has already gone well for him that Ineos, the team of Geraint Thomas, have taken the helm of the race in a second week to forget. He is only two seconds behind Thomasyou don’t need to attack like crazy, or as you would have done with evenepoel in action, and simply bonusing in the arrivals of the Dolomites and, above all, beating his Welsh rival in the time trial next Saturday, he has enough to prevail in the race. Besides, he knows that he always falls apart in the last days. Lacking a more attractive route, with physical problems due to his fall, it is understandable that he saves his strength for the end.
Why doesn’t Thomas attack?
Geraint Thomas He is a cyclist who has won the Tour (2018), which was second in Paris (2019) and third last year on the Champs-Élysées. However, in 2022, he was not in a position to fight for victory with vingegaard and pogacar. On Thursday he turns 38 and has never distinguished himself, not even in his victory in the French round, by attacking from afar. He trusts the support of Ineos and argues for conditions to win similar to those of roglic: bonus and play it all in the final ‘chrono’.
Why haven’t the Spanish gone?
For reasons similar to the absence of the great protagonists of cycling. enric mas, Michael Landa and bilbao hair are preparing for the Tour, just like carlos rodriguezwho will debut, except for surprise, in the French round. Juan Ayuso He has had physical problems all season and has not been able to debut until the end of April in the Tour de Romandie. He reserves for the Vuelta. Only seven runners have attended and six remain after the fall and abandonment of Oscar Rodriguez. The role could only be secondary and in the days that remain it seems impossible that they can win a stage.
How would the Giro be activated?
Well, without a doubt, with attacks from the first in the general (we must not forget the Portuguese joao almeida nor to italian Damiano Caruso) in the three online mountain stages that are scheduled (Tuesday, Thursday and Friday) with enough summits to turn the Giro upside down and above all to have something to remember.
