Giro d’Italia 2023, the events of the first week — Sportellate.it

After a first week dominated by the Belgian, the Giro is now restarting without its leader.

“It’s with a heavy heart that I have to announce that I will be leaving the Giro d’Italia”. With this sentence, posted and Remco Evenepoel on his social networks on the evening of Sunday 14 May the first week of Giro d’Italia number 108 ended.sudden withdrawal of the main favourite the victory took everyone by surprise and is undoubtedly a twist that we would have gladly done without.

With the same “heavy heart” of Evenepoel, journalists, analysts, enthusiasts, athletes arrive on the first day of rest from the race to put aside forecasts, analyzes and team tactics: without the announced champion, now we start from scratch; another race begins, other riders come forward who until Sunday afternoon aspired to a place in the top ten and now find themselves dragged into the spotlight with the ranks of favorites for the final victory. Nothing that happened in the last few hours could foreshadow such a dramatic epilogue, nor could the progress of the race in the first seven days.

For better or for worse, the Giro d’Italia has always been focused on the events of Evenepoel, in a sort of ring narration: the prologue of Saturday 6 May seemed to direct the race along the tracks announced for months: since the stages of the Giro were presented and Remco had confirmed his presence. The first stage, a 19-kilometre time trial along the splendid trabocchi coast in Abruzzo, was dominated by Evenepoel himself who finished in first place more than twenty seconds ahead of Filippo Ganna and Joao Almeida, but above all forty-three seconds ahead of Primoz Roglicthe announced rival, the only one who seemed able to question the final victory of the Belgian.

Evenepoel conquered stage and jersey on his debut with a cannibal performance: everything seemed aligned so that the pink jersey would remain on the shoulders of the same rider from the first to the last stage. The last to succeed had been John Bugno in 1990. The epilogue, the closure of this narration, took place just yesterday, Sunday with the 35 km time trial from Savignano sul Rubicone to Cesena, a stage also scourged by the rain and in which Remco Evenepoel won with just a measly second on Geraint Thomas, but taking back the pink jersey. At the end of the stage Evenepoel was upset and in the conference he admitted that he wasn’t having the best day of him: even the gain over his rivals in the general standings was minimal.

Of course, it was possible to grasp the dire omens of this Giro d’Italia right from the fifth stage: the 171 kilometers from Atripalda to Salerno on Wednesday 10 May. The day promised to be difficult: these are days of great stress for the group due to the rain that is ravaging the caravan’s roads, making the asphalt tremendously slippery. At the dawn of the race, when the group proceeds calmly following the classic script with the escape already started, a dog appears out of nowhere at the roadside; uncertain, he seems to stop and go back, then advances again. Those ambiguous movements, on the riders speeding at 50 km/h on the wet asphalt, have an uncontrollable effect and it is Evenepoel who ends up on the ground to pay the price. He remains seated on the side of the road for a long time and this makes us fear the worst: then he gets back on the saddle and slowly resumes pedaling.

However, just under three kilometers from the finish, still the Belgian crosses the trajectory with Mads Pedersen and ends up upside down again. When he gets up he is really very upset, even if the fall that occurred less than three kilometers away neutralizes the seconds of delay. The two crashes were not without consequences: the team doctor spoke of a severe muscle hematoma and a contusion to the sacrum, so much so that Evenepoel’s presence the following day in Naples was not a given. In the end the Belgian shows up in Piazza di Plebiscito, finally wearing a white rainbow shirt. The worst seems to be averted, before the scourge of Covid.

Meanwhile, Evenepoel had handed over the leader’s pink jersey to Norway’s Andreas Leknessund during the fourth stage from Venosa to Lago Laceno, the very first move of the Giro d’Italia. Lekensund – who, being from Tromso, became the most northerly born Maglia Rosa ever – he took the opportunity to carve out his moment of fame and the glory of wearing the pink jersey for a few days, finishing behind the French Aurelien Paret Peintre, winner of stage. Leknessund knew he could only keep the jersey until Sunday, given that in the time trial he would certainly have paid the price, and so he did; however, the Norwegian defended the Maglia Rosa in an exemplary way both in this week’s most awaited stage – the seventh, with arrival in Campo Imperatore, on the Gran Sasso – and in the following one, from Terni to Fossombrone. In the end, however, the winner in the latter was one of the most interesting cyclists to emerge in these first months of racing in 2023: the Irishman Ben Healy.

With his unkempt style in the saddle and with that slightly tousled hair and beard, Healy is an unpredictable rider and therefore very fun to watch in the race: on Saturday he attacked alone on the first ascent of Muro dei Cappuccini, a short climb of just over a kilometer and a half near Fossombrone, and no one was able to keep up with him. It is the third victory of the season; not bad for a rider who moved to the pros just this season.

The Irishman was not the only protagonist of the day because behind him the so-called big names finally began to move with more conviction: after the immobility in the Gran Sasso stage, it was Primoz Roglic to break the delay, aware of having to at least try to reduce the gap with Evenepoel before the time trial on the following Sunday. The Slovenian took off with his usual elegance 5 kilometers from the finish, during the second pass on the Muro dei Cappuccini and brought along the two Ineos captains, Tao Geogheghan Hart and the Welshman Geraint Thomas: behind Evenepoel he had a slight difficulty, but he limited the damage by closing fourteen seconds behind Roglic.

As mentioned, the big disappointment of this first week of the Giro inevitably came from the most awaited stage: that of Friday with departure from Capua and arrival at 2130 meters above sea level on the Gran Sasso d’Italia. The day was characterized by the long, exhausting wait for a move by one of the big names in the standings who instead remained stationary, only concerned with being escorted by the group to the finish line.

Three breakaway hunters therefore took the day’s honors: Simone Petilli (Intermarchè), Karel Vacek (Corratec) and Davide Bais in the blue jersey of Eolo Cometa. Just the latter, after a long breakaway of 200 kilometers with the other two, still had the strength to launch the decisive sprint less than a kilometer from the finish: it is the first victory in his career, which he also snatched from Thibaut Pinot the blue jersey of leader of the mountain, and the second ever of the young team owned by Ivan Basso and Alberto Contador.

As always, the first week also gave ample space to sprinters and Jonathan Milan undoubtedly took the scene, which finally seems to be on the right track to establish itself among the best sprinters on the international and national scene. In the first stage useful for fast wheels – the second, Sunday 7 May from Teramo to San Salvo – he tamed his opponents with a sprint of pure power: the force he impressed on the pedals in the last 200 meters before the finish line, with that movement rocking head, was so powerful that it seems a miracle that the bicycle didn’t fall apart.

After crossing the finish line, Milan let himself go into tears and unbridled screams that almost made him endearing. Also in the other stages in the sprint he finished in the top three: with second place in the fifth stage – that of the dog – behind the Australian Kaden Groves (Alpecin), also a sprinter who is emerging in this season with the two victories to the Tour of Catalunya and the one from Atripalda to Salerno. Here Milan perhaps sinned by naivety and inexperience arriving at the final sprint still wearing the rain jacket, which perhaps slowed down their race, but they still managed to play a respectable sprint.

The next day he again reached second place behind Mads Pedersen (Trek Segrafredo) who triumphed in the splendid stage in Naples. A 162 kilometer stage, starting from Piazza del Plebiscito and arriving in Via Caracciolo, after a long passage around Vesuvius and through the entire Sorrento peninsula and the Amalfi coast, in a riot of flags, ribbons, balloons and blue shirts to celebrate the scudetto of Napoli. Milan will have other opportunities to bring home a victory, while in the meantime he runs in the cyclamen jersey, as leader of the points standings. Let’s hope a star is born.

On Tuesday 16 May, the 196-kilometre race starts again from Scandiano, near Modena, to Viareggio, crossing the Apennines from Passo delle Radici, on the border between Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany. It starts again with Geraint Thomas in the pink jersey and two seconds ahead of Roglic and five over teammate Geogheghan Hart. Tomorrow another Giro starts.