If cycling were boxing, with stages transformed into rounds and the judges assigning points to each second stage, Simon Yates would have already had the Giro in his pocket for days. It would be enough for him to get to Rome that no one could take it away from him, so evident was his superiority starting from the sixth stage of Etna which gave him the pink jersey. Three victories, one more exciting than the other, three second places, first in the standings for two weeks, the blue jersey also as the leader of the climbers, a domain as the true master of the Giro: not even the dreaded Trento time trial had shaken his throne, with the Briton good at containing and repelling Dumoulin's onslaught.
All ready to celebrate its triumph, looking in the centennial history of the Giro for situations from the past to which to connect the first success of a rider of His Majesty in the Giro. And the final stage in the Capital, with Rome for the third time as the terminal point of the Giro, recalled another first victory, the one ever by a foreign rider, thanks to the Swiss Hugo Koblet, 25 years old then as Yates is today.
It was the 1950 edition, the one marked by the fall of Fausto Coppi in Primolano. Even the arrival in Prato Nevoso seemed to reserve nothing new in the upper quarters of the Giro, all under the control of Yates, with the peloton almost on parade, uninterested in what was happening a dozen minutes ahead among the survivors of the breakaway of the day chasing a win.
But a kilometer and a half was enough, the final one, to put everything in doubt, causing many certainties and forecasts to waver: Yates for the first time accused a sudden failure, unable to respond first to Froome's stretch, not yet resigned to losing this Tour. Worse still, the pink jersey was then powerless even in the face of the prompt reaction of Dumoulin and Pozzovivo who managed to hook the wheels of the four-time Tour winner.
At that moment the Giro reopened. Yates saw his rivals go away and in just over a thousand meters they were gnawing away at 28”. The little Englishman from Bury managed to keep the pink jersey but Dumoulin effectively halved his gap to 28”. An action that encourages the Dutchman to new ambushes in an attempt at the last minute to regain that pink jersey worn just one day after the victorious time trial in Jerusalem. A little less far away, still on the podium, third at 2'34” is also Pozzovivo, who on the threshold of turning 35 is racing the most beautiful Giro of his.
Fourth at 3'22” is Froome, ready to play his cards in today's two terrible stages with 4 Gpm including the Colle delle Finestre and tomorrow's in Cervinia. Two stages that up to Iseo gave Yates more certainties than fears, given his superiority in the mountains but which in the light of what happened in the final in Prato Nevoso now raise questions about the physical and also nervous strength of the pink jersey.
After the stage, Yates tried to minimize the misstep: "I haven't lost the Giro", even if he admitted he was just a little tired. But his rivals, from Dumoulin to Froome, have understood that he is not unbeatable. And there is no shortage of terrain to attack it.
The first crack in Yates' hitherto perfect engine overshadowed the victory of Maximilian Schachmann, who on the uphill finish straight managed to detach the Spaniard Ruben Plaza and the Italian Mattia Cattaneo by a handful of seconds, the survivors of the escape of a dozen riders that began immediately after the start from Abbiategrasso.
It is the first stage that sees a success for the fugitives. For the twenty-four year old German it is the first important success of his career which enriches the tally of victories of his team, the QuicK-Step Floors already strong in poker achieved so far by Elia Viviani.
