After the two finishes-on-top of the first Italian week, the General Classification has begun to take shape. This week in the north-west of Italy will start with a Time Trial that will comfort a few position and reorganise others. The unexpected Eulalio๐ต๐น might still keep the Pink jersey after it, and otherwise he certainly will remain on the podium.
Standing after 9 stages
General time classification
- Afonso Eulalio ๐ต๐น Bahrain
- Jonas Vingegaard ๐ฉ๐ฐ Visma: +2โฒ24โณ
- Felix Gall ๐ฆ๐น Decathlon: +2โฒ59โณ
- Jai Hindley Bora: +4โฒ32โณ
- Christian Scaroni Astana: +4โฒ43โณ
- Thymen Arensman ๐ณ๐ฑ Ineos: +5โฒ
- Mathys Rondel ๐ซ๐ท Tudor: +5โฒ01โณ
- Ben O'Connor ๐ฆ๐บ Jayco: +5โฒ03โณ
- Giulio Pellizzari ๐ฎ๐น Bora: +5โฒ15โณ
- Michael Storer ๐ฆ๐บ Tudor: +5โฒ20โณ
Points classification
Not much progress there.
- Paul Magnier ๐ซ๐ท Soudal-QS: 130 pts
- Jhonatan Narvaez ๐ช๐จ UAE: 86
- Jonathan Milan ๐ฎ๐น Lidl-Trek: 76
- Davide Ballerini ๐ฎ๐น Astana: 70
- Manuele Tarozzi ๐ฎ๐น Bardiani: 48
Intermediary Sprints classification
- Manuele Tarozzi ๐ฎ๐น Bardiani: 48
- Diego Sevilla ๐ช๐ธ Polti: 36
- Mattia Bais ๐ฎ๐น polti: 24
- Jonathan Milan ๐ฎ๐น Lidl-Trek: 23
- Martin Marcellusi ๐ฎ๐น Bardiani: 13
RB Sprints classification
- Manuele Tarozzi ๐ฎ๐น Bardiani: 30
- Diego Sevilla ๐ช๐ธ Polti: 22
- Afonso Eulalio ๐ต๐น Bahrain and 6 other riders: 15
Mountain classification
The 2 finishes-on-top have killed the game for a good while ๐
- Jonas Vingegaard ๐ฉ๐ฐ Visma: 111
- Diego Sevilla ๐ช๐ธ Polti: 60
- Felix Gall ๐ฆ๐น Decathlon: 48
- Einer Rubio ๐จ๐ด Movistar: 22
- Igor Arrieta ๐ช๐ธ UAE & Nelson Oliveira ๐ต๐น Movistar : 18
Fuga classification
- Diego Sevilla ๐ช๐ธ Polti: 721 (!!)
- Manuele Tarozzi ๐ฎ๐น Bardiani: 368
- Tim Naberman ๐ณ๐ฑ Picnic: 310 (who's he?)
- Martin Marcellusi ๐ฎ๐น Bardiani: 251
- Mattia Bais ๐ฎ๐น polti: 249
Teams classification
- Visma ๐ณ๐ฑ
- RB Bora ๐ฉ๐ช +1โฒ44โณ
- Movistar ๐ช๐ธ +8โฒ54โณ
- Astana ๐ฐ๐ฟ +10โฒ42โณ
- Ineos ๐ฌ๐ง +15โฒ32โณ
- Tudor๐จ๐ญ +18โฒ47โณ
Stages
Stage 10, Tuesday 19
42 km, individual Time Trial (15 pts)
It takes place at the same location as TirrenoโAdriatico introductory TT and is as flat, but it spreads over a much longer distance of the coast.
Stage 11, Wednesday 20
195 km, medium difficulty (25 pts), 3 km sprint zone, 1โณ splits
The first half of the stage may see a struggle between a breakaway and sprinters for the I.S. Then the second half is for punchers, inside a breakaway or not. Mind the extra little winding hump in the finish town.
map and profile of the finish
Stage 12, Thursday 21
175 km, low difficulty (50 pts), 5 km sprint zone, 3โณ splits
This stage was designed to have a breakaway, and then a fight with the peloton for a bunch sprint.
Stage 13, Friday 22
189 km, medium difficulty (25 pts), 3 km sprint zone, 1โณ splits
90% of this stage are flat, but there are two significant yet not very steep climbs about 20 km from the finish. Another Narvaez-compatible stage?
map and profile of the finish
Stage 14, Saturday 23
133 km, high difficulty (15 pts), no sprint zone, 1โณ splits
A pure mountain stage, which starts with a climb, ends with a climb, and present several other climbs in between, with little flat as the stage is short: 3 sections of 10, 5 and 10 km again and that's it. The percentages are not very steep, but the first and last climbs are very long.
map and profile of the finish
Stage 15, Sunday 24
157 km, no difficulty (50 pts), 5 km sprint zone, 3โณ splits
The stage to Milano, kept short and purely flat, is made for sprinters.
Stage 12, Thursday 21
Another day with quite many events.
There was some fight for the breakaway, before a stable one formed. But dozens of kilometres later, as things looked settled, the peloton didn't leave much leeway, fearing that sprinters would have a hard time killing a regular gap, NSN decided to pull the peloton, the breakaway kinda slowed down, and there were counter-attacks and a reconfiguration of the breakaway.
Then Movistar pushed hard in the first climb, as they did one week ago, to get rid of pure sprinters. Groenewegen (๐ณ๐ฑ Unibet) was quickly dropped, then Magnier (๐ซ๐ท Soudal-QS, was he dropped in both climbs or only the 2^nd^?); they didn't push so hard in the second, yet Milan (๐ฎ๐น Lidl-Trek) blew up near the summit.
Milan๐ฎ๐น and Magnier๐ซ๐ท quickly regrouped near the summit, with Van Uden (๐ณ๐ฑ Picnic) as well, so everyone thought that they could more or less easily catch the peloton who was just like 45-55 seconds ahead. The "or less easily" was because of the profile that wasn't so favourable as it could have been.
But two things happened: 1. Movistar got the support of NSN and then EF too. 2. Lidl-Trek and Soudal-QS didn't want or couldn't assign a significant workforce to the Milan/Magnier group. So they never made it back.
Eulalio (๐ต๐น Bahrain) and O'Connor (๐ฆ๐บ Jayco) did the Time Bonus sprint 13 km from the finish line: they got 6 and 4 free seconds without any effort. Why not? The Portuguese has now a bit over 30 seconds of advantage against Vingegaard to keep the Pink jersey as long as possible, and the Australian got a little bit closer to Gall in GC.
Then curiously, it was Visma leading the pack. Ciccone (๐ฎ๐น Lidl-Trek) attacked in a tiny wall 7 km from the line, but he was joined by Arrieta (๐ช๐ธ UAE), which pissed the Italian as he wouldn't relay :)
Poor Ben Turner (๐ฌ๐ง Ineos), the last sprinter, was dropped just 4 kilometres from the line. He had got a puncture 10 km earlier, causing a difficult chase to come back, after all the previous efforts. He had managed to come back, but he was exhausted.
Segaert (๐ง๐ช Bahrain) broke away in a curve 3 km from the line. Behind, the teams (Movistar, NSN, EF) which had produced all the previous efforts to get rid of sprinters had disappeared; Milesi (๐ฎ๐น Movistar) and a Soudal tried to counter-attack instead of pulling the peloton. Tudor and Uno-X appeared but very late. Too late.
Behind Segaert๐ง๐ช, the peloton's sprint was won by 2 surprises: Toon Aerts (๐ง๐ช Lotto) before Guillermo Silva (๐บ๐พ Astana). There were only 60 riders left in that peloton.
The teams who did all the work only got 4^th^ (Vernon ๐ฌ๐ง NSN), 6^th^ (Aular ๐ป๐ช Movistar) and 7^th^ (Mihkels ๐ช๐ช EF).
The team who abandoned Magnier๐ซ๐ท only got 5^th^ with Stuyven๐ง๐ช.
Uno-X and Tudor only got 10^th^ and 17^th^...
Eulalio has been in pink for 8 stages and they STILL havent given him a pink bike. Thats insulting on so many levels.
Especially with the stage finishing in the home of fausto coppi, this is a huge marketing fail by bianchi