In Corso Matteotti, between Piazza San Babila and Piazza Meda, Nairo Quintana was still in the pink jersey for a few seconds. But at the finish line in Piazza Duomo there were still a few hundred meters and two sharp bends to break the speed: when he crossed the finish line his pink jersey had already passed on the shoulders of Tom Dumoulin, the first Dutchman to win the Giro with 31" ahead of the Andean climber. The advantage of 53” with which he had started from the Monza racetrack was not enough for him, as was to be expected.
Like Joaquim Rodriguez mocked by Ryder Hesiedal in 2012, like Laurent Fignon in 1984 overtaken at the Arena di Verona by Francesco Moser, the final time trial was fatal to Quintana who lost by just 31" a Giro raced more by surveyor than by Condor, the fault – revealed the Movistar leader after the time trial was over – was also due to a boring fever that hit him right in the mountain stages. Nibali also sought the miracle by giving his best but beating Dumoulin, who was also helped by the long straights of the stage, was impossible.
Lo Squalo saved the podium, his fifth in the Giro between victories (2) and placings (3). Accounts in hand, in the two stages against the clock Dumoulin earned much more than Quintana (but also Nibali and Pinot) managed to inflict on him on the big mountains. The first of which, Etna, was completely wasted by climbers perhaps thinking of the many asperities that would come later. But when in Oropa Dumoulin caught up with and then pulled away from Quintana and Nibali, we began to understand that Dumoulin would be a difficult client to get rid of, despite having a week in the Alps and Dolomites ahead of him.
It took an embarrassing stomach ache on the Swiss ascent of the Stelvio to delay the Dutchman in the pink jersey, otherwise even the toughest stage of the Giro would have ended with Dumoulin hot on Nibali and Quintana's heels. The Condor made the only high note on the Blockhaus but in that stage Dumoulin, arriving with Pinot just 24” behind the Colombian, had sent a first strong signal. With the subsequent overwhelming time trial of Montefalco, the Maastricht butterfly launched its candidacy to win the Giro.
And the other night in Asiago, with the mountains completed, the Dutchman didn't make any drama when for a handful of seconds he was even expelled from the podium area, slipping to fourth place. Between Piancavallo, Monte Grappa and Foza Dumoulin had certainly suffered but his rivals, tired too, neither Nibali downhill, nor Pinot and Quintana uphill, had been able to give him the kappao blow. Dumoulin's gap had remained so small as to make everyone say that the Giro was already his, even if Quintana and Nibali, more than Pinot, gave everything in the time trial to try to overturn the predictions.
Quintana hasn't made any drama, now he's thinking about the Tour where he will have to face Froome who aims at poker. Nibali won't go to France, maybe he will aim for the Vuelta. For the record, completing the Dutch success in the pink race was also the lesser known Jos Van Emden who took away the satisfaction of winning the time trial ahead of none other than Dumoulin, the winner of Giro number 15, by 100 seconds.
