Up until this point, the Giro d’Italia has been at times sleepy, confusing, and mostly defined by crashes. But this week’s stages were a doozy, and featured the blockbuster climb of the first week of Giro. Read on for a recap of all the action stages 7-9 offered, and a tasty and easy dish that has its versions all across the world.

Stage 7: Formia – Blockhaus

Stage 7 was long, at over 240km long it was the longest stage of the Giro. The stage ended with Blockhaus – a challenging 14km climb averaging 8 percent. The day’s break got caught on the Blockhaus climb and Jonas Vingegaard attacked with roughly 6 km to go.

While strong enough to win the stage, and put nearly 3 min on the pink jersey, he only put a 12-second gap on Felix Gall – a podium contender. Vingegaard is still the clear favorite for the Giro, but it was not the dominant performance expected, and showed that Gall is in very good form. Vingegaard was still able to celebrate winning his first Giro stage, giving him the hat trick of stage wins in all 3 grand tours.

Stage 8: Chieti – Fermo

This stage was a clear breakaway stage, 156km long, with four lower category climbs over the final 60 km of the stage, and two of those short, steep, climbs in the final 10 km.

In the final 30 km there were two breakaways ahead of the peloton. The lead group had two UAE riders and one rider from the Norwegian team: Uno-X Mobility, Andreas Leknessund.

The chase group behind the leaders was too big to cooperate with over 30 riders. On the second-to-last climb, Narvaez from UAE Emirates attacked from the lead group to go solo for the finish. The final climb was viciously steep – reaching a maximum gradient of 22 percent! The parcours kicked up again after the climb in the final kilometer up to the finish line into Fermo. Jhonatan Narvaez won his second stage, and UAE’s third of this Giro.

Afonso Eulalio attacked in the final climb to try to build up his lead in the pink jersey, showing a willingness to fight to keep the jersey. Jai Hindley also attacked to gain time in the final ramp up to the finish line. Vingegaard followed Hindley, and Eulalio followed them. There was some slight movement in the GC, but no major changes.

Stage 9: Cervia – Corno alle Scale

This 185km stage featured a design sometimes referred to as a “unipuerto” stage: a mostly flat stage with one big climb for the finish. These stages are common in the Vuelta a España, but last year’s Colle delle Finestre would be another example of this stage type.

Although a breakaway formed, Decathlon CMA CGM controlled for their GC contender Felix Gall. On the final climb, Gall attacked and Vingegaard followed, swallowing up Giulio Ciccone and the rest of the breakaway’s bid for the stage win.

After Gall’s attack, Vingegaard attacked in the final 800 meters, earning his 2nd Giro stage and 50th career win overall. In the GC, Eulalio’s lead on Vingegaard narrowed, and Jai Hindley, Thymen Arensman, and Mathys Rondel all improve their standing in the top 10.

The Dish

For the Giro’s journey through Abruzzo in stages 7 and 8 I was excited to make a typical snack food of the region: arrosticini. These are simply-seasoned skewers of lamb, which is common in the regional cuisine due to the prevalence of sheep herding. I was unable to find lamb, so I made steak and chicken arrosticini.

I think many cultures have a version of this dish. In Puerto Rican cuisine we have “pinchos” which are meat skewers often dressed with a light barbecue sauce. The arrosticini are very simply seasoned with just salt and pepper, and the brush of a rosemary sprig, so I aimed for a similarly simple seasoning. I was sure to use chicken thighs for the chicken skewers so they wouldn’t get too dry and added a slightly squeeze of lemon. The steak skewers were seasoned with salt and pepper.

The chicken skewers were more my speed in all honesty, but I really enjoyed, as I often do when cooking Italian food, how tasty simple ingredients treated with care can be.

The GC action will only heat up from here on out with the race of truth and more major mountain stages still to come. Stay tuned for that and even more Italian dishes in the days to come.

Ciao!