Week 2 of the Giro d’Italia offered plenty of breakaway action, and a time trial that help define the contours of the GC battle. To pair it all together, I celebrated this tour of Italy’s northwest with risotte alle milanese.
Stage 10: The Race of Truth
Time trials are a test of power, aerodynamics, and form. This time trial was very long – 40 km of flat terrain along the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Filippo Ganna – an Italian time-trial specialist for Netcompany-Ineos was the favorite. And he did indeed win the stage easily by 2 minutes on the GC competitors. Afonso Eulalio lost a significant chunk of time on his GC lead but managed to stay in the pink jersey by less than half a minute.
Stage 11: A Coastal Breakaway
Stage 11 was a 195 km course starting in Porcari and ending in Chiavari. The stage offered beautiful views as the Giro traveled through Cinque Terre – a stunning area in the Liguria region. The latter half of the stage had 3 smaller climbs. This would become a theme of the stages this week: a flat intro followed by climbs that offered a launching pad for breakaway riders. On stage 11, Enric Mas attacked in the final climb, bringing UAE’s Jhonatan Narvaez with him over the top. Unable to shake Narvaez, Mas loses the sprint finish, and Narvaez wins his third stage and the team’s fourth of this Giro.
Stage 12: The Sprint Stage that Wasn’t
On paper, stage 12, at 175 km long was going to be a sprint stage. But Movistar had other ideas and set an extremely high pace on the two climbs of the day, dropping all the sprinters in the process. What was left was a reduced peloton. Alec Segaert of Bahrain Victorious attacked in the final few kilometers, and bizarrely no one chased him immediately. By the time someone did, it was too late and Segaert earned his first stage victory – making Bahrain Victorious’ Giro (team of the current pink jersey) a true success.
Stage 13: Fuga de la Fuga
Stage 13 was a mostly flat 187 km long stage that had two punchy climbs in the final 24km. However, these climbs offered a launch pad for the breakaway – that had been given a 10 minute lead on the peloton. In the end, after being initially distanced from the leader by riding the climb at his own pace, Italian rider Alberto Bettiol on XDS-Astana did a perfectly-timed attack on the final climb. He passed the lead rider and expertly descended towards the finish line – with help of his local knowledge of the area. Bettiol wins his first stage of the Giro, and the team’s third.
Stage 14: Aosta Valley Pain
Stage 14 was to be a GC day, with Jonas Vingegaard stating his intentions for the victory early on. The toughest stage of the second week of the Giro was to cover 5 categorized climbs, including a mountain-top finish over 133 km. While a strong breakaway formed, a lack of coordination from the break and Visma Lease-a-bike’s efforts to control the stage made it clear the break never stood a chance.
Indeed, Jonas Vingegaard attacked in the final kilometers of the last climb of the stage and slowly built up a gap on all his competitors, gaining his third stage win of this year’s Giro. He took the pink jersey with a lead of over 2 minutes on Afonso Eulalio.
Stage 15: Will Sprinters Ever Win a Stage Again?
Stage 15 was obviously meant to be a sprint stage designed to give Jonathan Milan a chance to win in Milan. The 156km stage was flat and finished with a 4-lap circuit in the city of Milan. Yet, the sprinters did not win, for they were unable to catch a cooperative breakaway of 4-riders. The winner, Fredrik Dversnes from Uno-X Mobility won the stage from the break that stuck together until the final hundred meters of the race. The art of the breakaway lives on, and the sprinters must be feeling very frustrated with another opportunity slipping away.
The Dish: Risotto alle Milanese
For this week of the Giro I took advantage of being home visiting my parents to have my mom – who is an excellent cook – help me out with the dish. She taught me how to make one of her trademark dishes, and a dish befitting of the Giro’s traipse through Milan: risotto alle milanese.
We made the risotto with saffron, cooked in stock and white wine, and finished with butter and parmigiano reggiano. This wouldn’t have been nearly as good if I had made it on my own. And we paired it with some lobster, but this would go well with a number of different proteins!
Apologies for the very long post. It is a byproduct of traveling. The last week of the Giro will offer some of the most exciting stages to come as teams grow anxious to add a win to their list. Stay tuned!
Grazie mille and ciao!