Given the layout of the Giro, it was to be expected that the big names, after battling it out in the initial time trial in San Luca, would have paid the minimum wage, all waiting for the second time trial in San Marino this Sunday which acts as a watershed between the first part with some soft Apennine ascent and the many alpine asperities, some breathtaking, scattered in the second half of the pink race. What disturbed the planned truce more than the competitive exploits was bad luck which with this raging bad weather multiplied the crashes, putting important names out of the game like first Tom Dumoulin and then yesterday also Fernando Gaviria, who leaves the Giro after winning the Orbetello stage, that of Viviani downgraded.
Even yesterday in the stage that brought the Giro to L'Aquila, the first of Primoz Roglic without the pink jersey passed to Valerio Conti, there was no desire for battle in the group even if the speed has always been sustained with a final average above 45 km per hour, quite a ride considering the approximately 2 meters of difference in altitude to overcome. Merit of a twelve-man breakaway that characterized the day: among the others there were José Rojas, already in a breakaway the day before, who had been the virtual leader of the Giro for a long time, and Davide Formolo, Hansgrohe's classification man, good to fit in hoping to win his first stage in the Giro and maybe overtaking the big names in the standings that precede him from the San Luca time trial.
L'Aquila in the history of the Giro is a place that calls for leaks such as to upset all predictions: the mother of all, unforgettable, is that of a couple of semi-unknowns: one is Swiss, Carlo Clerici, who came to the Giro as Hugo's follower Koblet, the other is Italian Nino Assirelli. It was May 22, 1954: the program included the fraction that brought the caravan from Naples to L'Aquila. In the total disinterest of the group, the two fugitives accumulated a lead of more than half an hour at the finish line: Clerici won the stage and wore the pink jersey which he carried all the way to Milan, well protected by Koblet who finished second more than 24 minutes late. That was Gino Bartali's last Giro, an edition also marked by the Bernina scandal with the riders all in groups climbing the famous mountain which in the mind of Vincenzo Torriani, the historic organizer of the Giro, should have been the scene of another possible feat by Coppi in the jersey world champion like the Stelvio had been the previous year.
Returning to today, the escape of the brave dozen went through despite losing more than half of its participants along the way: in the eventful finale there were five left with Formolo the most tenacious in leading the pacesetters to avoid the reunification of the group he was recovering. It was Rojas who attempted a sortie that had all the airs of a decisive coup d'état but the Spaniard soon ran out of steam, thus vanishing for him the dream of snatching the pink jersey from Conti. Rojas out of the game, Bilbao Lopez took the initiative and this time it was the action that hit the target. Not even Tony Gallopin's final impetus took away the joy of his first success in the Giro from the Astana driver. Formolo was third, beaten once again by a blue jersey from the Kazakh team as was the recent Liège-Bastogne-Liege which saw him second behind the Danish Jacob Fuglsang. But the young Italian, if he failed to win the stage, managed to gain a good minute in a practically unchanged standings – thanks also to the bonus for third place – which brings him on a par with Roglic, thirteenth at 5'24” by Conti on his second day in the squad.
