Even cycling knows a disappointing zero to zero. It happened punctually yesterday on Etna, with Quintana and Nibali marking each other, with the Shark sprinting two km from the finish, dictated more than anything else to please his people in Sicily and the Condor who, unruffled, he orders Amador to suck it up. Then nothing more. For a long-awaited stage with the first challenging arrival on high ground it is really too little, like a bad football match where there are no goals but no shots on goal.
Blocked by tactics, the two great favourites, a Slovenian Jan Polanc took care of ennobling the volcano, who turned 25 three days ago, with a feat that smacks of courage and the past. Sprinted in flight with three others immediately after the departure from Cefalù, his companions detached in the attack on Etna, he resisted the pursuit of the group of the best - who, to tell the truth, didn't damn their souls in chasing him - triumphantly concluding almost 180 km of breakaway.
A surprise victory but not so much given that this Slovenian had already done something similar by dominating the Abetone stage solo in the 2015 Giro, the one won by Alberto Contador. A stage that does not move anything on the front of the favorites for the final victory, but which served to create a clear gap between those racing for the standings and the others already sunk into delays close to half an hour.
It is the price paid to the volcano by the first three pink jerseys of the Giro with Postlberger, Greipel and Gaviria who arrived at the 1892 meters of the Sapienza Hut with gaps of more than 20 minutes from the winner. The unfortunate Rohan Dennis didn't even get up there at the top, who retired on the first ramps of the Portella Female Mortars, nor did Javier Moreno, Nibali's follower, disqualified by the jury for pushing Diego Rosa.
Etna, if it establishes a draw between Nibali and Quintana, has however said that the two big names in the Giro will do well to beware of a group of rivals who have not come to Italy to accompany them. Their names are known: Geraint Thomas, Thibaut Pinot, Adam Yates, Steven Kruijswijk but also Ilnur Zakarin, who yesterday recovered part of the seconds lost due to a crash in Sardinia, stretching in the final and finishing second 19 seconds behind Polanc and 10 seconds ahead of the group of the best regulated by Thomas in front of Pinot.
In this group there was also the Luxembourgian Bob Jungels, Gaviria's team mate, who regained the pink jersey that was already his for three days in last year's Giro. He won't be a new Gaul, the unforgettable climber who at the turn of the 50s and 60s gave the Principality two Girs and a Tour, but he is another growing subject that the Shark and the Condor will have to keep an eye on.
