The Stage
I take back what I said in yesterday’s post, today’s stage was the Queen stage. The stage was a 205 km route through Piedmonte with the hardest climb of the whole Giro: Colle delle Finestre. Delle Finestre was 40 km away from the finish line and was a 19 km climb with an average grade of 9 percent. The final 8 km of the climb were on a gravel road. (It was on this climb in 2018 that Simon Yates lost the Giro d’Italia to Chris Froome.) After delle Finestre there was a brief descent through a valley up to the final climb to the finish line in Sestrière.
The breakaway made it to the bottom of the Colle delle Finestre with a 10-min lead. Chris Harper of Jayco Alula separated from the breakaway on the climb to be the first over the summit and rode solo to the finish line and won the stage. It was an incredible achievement for Harper to be first on such a difficult stage. But today was also the day that the GC was decided, as tomorrow’s stage is mostly ceremonial — a flat stage with only a sprint finish win up for grabs.
At the beginning of the day, Isaac del Toro (UAE Emirates) was in first place, with Richard Carapaz (EF EasyPost) down thirty seconds in second place, and Simon Yates (Visma Lease a Bike) in third and down one minute and twenty seconds from del Toro.
Coming into the bottom of delle Finestre EF EasyPost did a number of strong pulls in the bottom of the climb instantly shedding large shares of the peloton. Carapaz attacked and del Toro followed. Yates was left behind, but ultimately climbed his way back to del Toro and Carapaz. After making his way back, Yates attacked in the lower slopes of delle Finestre and managed to separate a bit from the the main GC contenders. Carapaz and del Toro were more occupied with marking each other than Yates, and Yates manages to be the first over delle Finestre with a nearly two minute lead and snagged the virtual lead.
Yates had teammate Wout van Aert ahead (with van Aert having been part of the earlier breakaway group) and joined up with him on the descent. Van Aert paced Yates into the final 5 km through the valley up to the final climb, growing the lead over del Toro and Carapaz who refused to cooperate with each other over this section to try to take back time from Yates.
Simon Yates, of Great Britain, won the Giro d’Italia by gaining a nearly 4 minute lead over del Toro at the end of the day. Provided he arrives safely in Rome he will be this year’s Giro d’Italia winner on the General Classification, having taken the lead from third place on the same climb in which he lost the Giro seven years earlier.
It was a lot of action today, here’s a recap video if you want to be able to see a little exactly how it played out. A lot of people were questioning just how UAE managed to lose the Giro, but Yates worked hard, setting an all time fastest time up delle Finestre and definitely earned his win of the Giro today as well.
The Dish
Today I made a dessert, desserts always feel celebratory so I thought it would be appropriate. I made a vanilla panna cotta recipe from Piedmonte. These sorts of desserts that are so sensitive to temperature — heating the sugar into a caramel, staying attuned to the temperature needs of the milk and cream for the custard, and the finickiness of gelatin — are the hardest to make in my opinion.
First I caramelized the sugar in the oven, pouring some into my molds and waiting for it to caramelize. Once it started getting melty I heated up the cream, vanilla, and sugar and added the gelatin. After that was ready I poured it into the mold and let it set for a few hours in the fridge before turning them out. Because I poured them into my molds but didn’t bother with measuring it out evenly, my final panna cotta only half-filled the mold.
It was really yummy. What’s not to like? The caramel sauce in particular was really tasty. The panna cotta was slightly under-set but I’m not sure if that was due to needing more time in the fridge, or not using enough gelatin, or some other gelatin-related nuance that I failed to attend to. Nonetheless this was tasty and I would definitely make it again.
Until tomorrow’s final stage to Roma!