This week offers stages for climbers and GC leaders, as well as stages for punchers. Sprinters will have the last day in Rome for them (providing they can catch a breakaway of Italian contis...)
Standings after 15 stages
General time classification
Le gap between the Dane and the Portuguese hasn't changed in a week in absolute value, just the sign has changed :-) Scaroni was 5^th^ but had to withdraw.
- Jonas Vingegaard ๐ฉ๐ฐ Visma:
- Afonso Eulalio ๐ต๐น Bahrain: +2โฒ24โณ
- Felix Gall ๐ฆ๐น Decathlon: +2โฒ50โณ
- Thymen Arensman ๐ณ๐ฑ Ineos: +3โฒ03โณ
- Jai Hindley Bora: +3โฒ43โณ
- Giulio Pellizzari ๐ฎ๐น Bora: +4โฒ22โณ
- Michael Storer ๐ฆ๐บ Tudor: +4โฒ46โณ
- Ben O'Connor ๐ฆ๐บ Jayco: +5โฒ22โณ
- Derek Gee ๐จ๐ฆ Lidl-Trek: +5โฒ41โณ
- Davide Piganzoli ๐ฎ๐น Visma: +6โฒ13โณ
- Mathys Rondel ๐ซ๐ท Tudor: +6โฒ58โณ
Points classification
The podium order is still the same, but Milan, who scored only 2 points in a week, may have given up.
- Paul Magnier ๐ซ๐ท Soudal-QS: 145 pts
- Jhonatan Narvaez ๐ช๐จ UAE: 131
- Jonathan Milan ๐ฎ๐น Lidl-Trek: 78
- Davide Ballerini ๐ฎ๐น Astana: 70
- Manuele Tarozzi ๐ฎ๐น Bardiani: 48
Intermediary Sprints classification
Top-5 has the same members, but all riders from Italian teams kept on scoring while Milan didn't at all.
- Manuele Tarozzi ๐ฎ๐น Bardiani: 60
- Diego Sevilla ๐ช๐ธ Polti: 48
- Mattia Bais ๐ฎ๐น polti: 44
- Martin Marcellusi ๐ฎ๐น Bardiani: 25
- Jonathan Milan ๐ฎ๐น Lidl-Trek: 23
RB Sprints classification
The classification stalled, basically only Eulalio kept on scoring.
- Manuele Tarozzi ๐ฎ๐น Bardiani: 31
- Afonso Eulalio ๐ต๐น Bahrain: 30
- Diego Sevilla ๐ช๐ธ Polti: 22
Mountain classification
Sevilla could only score 3 points this week.
- Jonas Vingegaard ๐ฉ๐ฐ Visma: 161
- Jardi Van der Lee ๐ณ๐ฑ EF: 77
- Giulio Ciccone ๐ฎ๐น Lidl-Trek: 75
- Felix Gall ๐ฆ๐น Decathlon: 72
- Diego Sevilla ๐ช๐ธ Polti: 63
Fuga classification
Only 30 km more for Sevilla this week. Often the breakaway groups were too large to count. But M. Bais managed to score more than 250 km.
- Diego Sevilla ๐ช๐ธ Polti: 753
- Mattia Bais ๐ฎ๐น polti: 516
- Manuele Tarozzi ๐ฎ๐น Bardiani: 458
- Martin Marcellusi ๐ฎ๐น Bardiani: 403
- Mirco Maestri ๐ฎ๐น Polti: 347
Teams classification
2 teams are clearly above the others.
- Visma ๐ณ๐ฑ
- RB Bora ๐ฉ๐ช +0โฒ24โณ
- Tudor๐จ๐ญ +22โฒ05โณ
- Ineos ๐ฌ๐ง +22โฒ07โณ
- Q36.5 ๐จ๐ญ +30โฒ58โณ
- Decathlon ๐ซ๐ท +49โฒ06โณ
Stages
Stage 16, Tuesday 26
113 km, high difficulty (15 pts), no sprint zone, 1โณ splits
This stage exhibits a funny design: its middle part is very much for punchers, but then there is a break, and finally a long finish-on-top for pure climbers.
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Stage 17, Wednesday 27
202 km, medium difficulty (25 pts), no sprint zone, 1โณ splits
A stage for breakaways, punchers and guys doing secondary/tertiary classifications.
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Stage 18, Thursday 28
171 km, low difficulty (50 pts), 3 km sprint zone, 1โณ splits
It could have been a stage for sprinters, if it wasn't for this last hump just 10 km from the line. Don't be fooled by its classification as 4^th^ category, it is not not a false flat but a wall, 1 km at 12%. A few years ago, we would have said this was tailored for Alaphilippe.
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Stage 19, Friday 29
151 km, high difficulty (15 pts), no sprint zone, 1โณ splits
We find a bit of mountain here! 6 climbs including the cima Coppi of this year (Passo Giau) and almost 5000 m of elevation... For the GPM, Passo Giau will be worth 50 points, Passo Duran (the 1^st^ climb of the day) 40 pts, and the other 4, 18 points each; therefore 162 points are available.
Allowed delay will be around 55 mn, so there is very little hope to eliminate even a sick sprinter.
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Stage 20, Saturday 30
200 km, high difficulty (15 pts), no sprint zone, 1โณ splits
The last mountain stage, with a main climb done twice.
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Stage 21, Sunday 31
131 km, no difficulty (50 pts), 5 km sprint zone, 3โณ splits
A flat stage to finish on 8 laps of the circuit in the capital city.
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Stage 18, Thursday 28
Standings before the stage for a few of the secondary classifications which are still fought over:
Points classification
Many riders can still fight for 3^rd^ place (worth 95 UCI points).
Intermediary Sprints classification
RB Sprints classification
Rubio has been in many breakaways lately.
Mountain classification
Ciccone is going for it, but...
It was very difficult to understand the logic of most teams today, especially in the last 20 km.
Everyone expected a big breakaway and wanted to be in; yet when the peloton finally gave up, it was just composed of 2 Polti ahead (Mifsud๐ซ๐ท/๐ฒ๐น and M. Bais๐ฎ๐น) who waited for an EF and an Alpecin who were in chasse-patate.
Then 25 km from the line, Lidl-Trek were pushing like crazy, and caught the breakaway several kilometres before the RB bonus sprint, despite having no interest in it, neither for time bonuses, not for RB classification. In fact, they completely stopped their effort when the breakaway was 10 metres ahead of the peloton, and while 3 of them were giving up, the 4^th^ one, Geens (๐ง๐ช Alpecin) kept going and reached the RB sprint in first position.
Still at this RB sprint, everyone in the peloton was going slow and blocking riders from behind: riders interested in the RB classification, like the Bardiani riders, couldn't defend their chances. The GC leaders didn't try to score a few easy seconds. Even better, Arensman (๐ณ๐ฑ Ineos), who is just 24 seconds behind Gall (and 33 ahead of Hindeley) in GC, could have scored 4 seconds easily, but he scored 0, as his own teammate deprived him of the 2 seconds he could have got without even sprinting, just staying at the front of the peloton behind a Decathlon rider...
Then there was the wall, which was supposed to be the launchpad for a stage victory of punchers. Again, the peloton was riding super fast in the few miles before it. And when the wall started... they all slew down, and nobody attacked. Not a strong puncher, not a small puncher: no one. After a while, only Eulalio (๐ต๐น Barhrain), who had suffered a significant crash 30 or 40 km earlier, attempted something. But he was chased by... Kuss (๐บ๐ธ Visma) and Vingegaard๐ฉ๐ฐ pulling the peloton. Why did they do that? What was their objective? Another mystery. There was nothing to win for them.
So it was a sprinter finish, and the fight for Cyclamen is basically over. โน๏ธ
Eulalio has really shown himself to be a rider with panache. Count me as a eulalio fan from now on
gee-west burnt more GC matches again trying to help milan. What a great teammate!