Giro d'Italia Ganna sweeps at almost 60km / h, Evenepoel appears and Landa doubts
The Giro proceeds through Piedmont and heads towards
Novara,
one of the iconic cities of northern Italy that, however, the 'Corsa Rosa' had been ignoring for decades. The last stop there was in 1968, when
Eddy Merckx
, already a world champion, began to forge his legend. It was the first stage (second, counting the prologue) of an edition for history, the first Grand Tour of the 11 that the best cyclist of all time won throughout his career. The 'Cannibal', on a flat stage, surprised the peloton in the final kilometers and won with a six-second advantage, catching the pure sprinters confused.
Now everything is different. The margin for surprise is minimal in stages with those of this Sunday, so flat, so long, so nondescript. For years now, the peloton has had an unwritten script for these first week Grand Tour stages that is rarely breached. And nobody protests, because the repetitive dynamics suits almost everyone. Namely, the breakaway is made up of two to five riders from the invited teams, with the occasional addition of small World Tour teams. The peloton lets do it, but controlling the distance so that there are no surprises, leaving
the flight alive until the final 20 or 30 kilometers.
And so it happens in the second stage of this Giro, with representatives of Bardiani, Androni and Eolo monopolizing television minutes and the sprint teams allocating one gregarious each so that everything is under control. Meanwhile, the peloton takes advantage of the time to greet old friends, as on the first day of school after the summer: "What a good Tyrrhenian you did", "I saw you strong in Flanders", "How about your new team? ? "," You shouldn't have left, we miss you "," I have an offer for next year that ... ".
There are 27 kilometers to go and
Tagliani
and
Marengo are
neutralized. Before it had been Albanese, who after securing the mountain jersey by passing the first in a scoring tack takes advantage of a fault in the bicycle to return to the large group. His calm in the change of mount says it all. That's when the squad raises the pace, because they don't want fugitives, they don't want a Merckx (without going into comparisons ...) who tries to break the script. There isn't. The favorites of the general claim positions on the war front and there appear Movistar, Ineos, Israel ... Better to avoid scares, 15 or 20 kilometers of heat are better than a disgust in the form of a cut or fall that compromises their options in the general ahead of time.
Only in the last kilometer the peloton reorganizes itself and leaves all the prominence to the sprinters. To all those who have known how to position themselves well, of course.
Caleb Ewan
, arguably the fastest cyclist in the world, regrets his poor performance again and is out of the fight.
Fernando Gaviria
, to whom something always happens, is blocked by his own gregarious and appreciates that the goal fences are properly anchored, otherwise he might have spent the next few hours in a hospital.
Tim Merlier
, on the other hand, has entered well placed, since Alpecin dominates that art almost at the same level as Deceuninck, a master team in the discipline and that does not appear this time because in this Giro they do not line up any sprinter and trust everything to the general one, we'll see if with Almeida, Evenepoel or even Masnada. Elia
Viviani
is also where he should be, but the Italian is not the same since he left, precisely, the Deceuninck. It happens to almost everyone.
So, with those ingredients,
Merlier claims himself as the best man and wins the stage
. At the age of 28, this is
his debut on a Grand Tour
, already confirmed as one of the best sprinters in the world, growing up in the shadow of his partner Mathieu Van der Poel, who is now concentrating his efforts on the Mountain Bike season.
Giacomo Nizzolo
, who earns little but is always there, comes
second
and
Viviani
is
third
behind Dylan Groenewegen, who shows physical but not mental weakness after Fabio Jakobsen's accident last summer. And
Filippo Ganna
, who strives to protect Egan Bernal,
keeps the 'pink jersey'
, as it will surely do on Monday as well, before the mountain makes its first appearance at the Giro.
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