There were the Frecce Tricolori and the flags. If it hadn't been for the rain, it would have been a day of celebration.It was announced as a stage approaching the first mountains, with the arrival shared between Gorizia and Nova Gorica in the spirit of culture and brotherhood between peoples. Instead it turned into a disaster for the Italian protagonists of the Tour of ItalyAnything can still happen, as television commentators are quick to repeat, but the disheartening fact is that yesterday's rosy situation is now a distant memory.
It's the fault of a fall that was certainly not caused by fate: in certain dynamics Unfortunately, bad luck is not the first factor to consider and after the stage Van Aert he said it clearly. There were 23 kilometers to go and at the head of the group was the Visma-Lease a Bike He was working in the slipstream of the still-breaking Asgreen, to get Kooij into the sprint, when all hell broke loose.
“It was certainly a circuit with a lot of corners,” Van Aert told the Belgian media after the finish, “but the one in Lecce seemed much more dangerous to me. What happened today was a choice of the ridersThe ranking teams are nervous, they produce their own stress, and that's why they fall. We must have the courage to say it. They constantly take excessive risks and that's why they fall».
It is not yet known whether there will be any controversy because the Dutch team continued to shoot, but with Asgreen still in the lead and heading for victory it would have made no sense to stop. And so Visma found itself without the stage, but with Simon Yates back in the rankings. Although that's probably not how they would have wanted to get back into the game.
Del Toro, cat's eyes
The crash, it was said, occurred in the top fifteen positions of the group, confirming what Van Aert said. Almost all the men in the general classification remained behind, except for Isaac Del Toro, who has cat-like reflexes and almost seems to have a magic eye to predict what will happenThe stage was almost entirely based on the same pattern, with the four escapees in front and the group following suit behind them, so as not to catch them too early.
Asgreen, Davy, Marcellusi and Maestri, with Alpecin and Visma behind to keep the pace cheerful still having Groves e kooij with the bestAll day like this, until the first passage on the Saver, a 700-meter climb with a 7,7 percent gradient, when the group was completely mowed down by a fall.
A narrow passageway between city streets. The cobblestones were wet. And after braking, the sound of a crash. Among those who had fallen, some were immediately reported. Pedersen and Vacek, candidates to compete for the stageThe pink jersey Del Toro, which however started again immediately. Bernal, Roglic and Ayuso, quick to get back into the swing of things. While Ciccone remained still, he then sat down on the sidewalk, with his knee evidently injured..
Before the stage, the Abruzzese was seventh in the general classification, 2'20” behind the pink jerseyHe had conquered the podium twice, but now the question is whether he will be able to restart tomorrow and possibly turn towards conquering a stage. In these cases, more than the physical pain, discouragement and Giulio's face as he slipped into the tent to change did not bode well.The delay of 16'14” with which the Lidl Trek crossed the finish line compactly sounds like an irrevocable sentence.
Destroy yourself to win
Asgreen's voice resonates on the sidelines of the chaos and it is right to give credit to this concrete and tough Dane, who has already succeeded in the past beat Van der Poel in the two-man sprint of a FlandersIt was 2021 and in that bend Mathieu after the two-man breakaway there was his ability to bring out the best when even the strongest are tired. For this reason today he had no great problems shaking off Marcellusi and Maestri, who were now at the end of their strength.
“It was a tough day,” he said. To achieve this kind of thing you have to destroy yourself completely, but when you succeed the joy is so greatThe team gave me a lot of information and even suggested I attack at a certain point. I know that in the second part of a Grand Tour, breakaways can happen, even on a flat stage. We were all tired and that's why I went full throttle. The circuit was technical, the roads were wet, it was difficult for the group to go faster than us in the breakaway."
Ciccone at the hospital
The day promises to be a long one. The Lidl-Trek communications department has asked that the team's riders not be contacted and that updates will be provided when they know more tooCiccone was greeted upon arrival by Dr. Daniele, who immediately tried to assess his condition. At the time of writing this article, Giulio is going to the hospital to undergo x-rays that can give a dimension to his injuryHis overall ambitions may have faded after the time trial, but certainly no one could have imagined such a turnaround in his Giro.
We'll keep you updated on our social media channels when we know more. It was still a fall (caused by a roe deer that had crossed the road) and the resulting knee pain caused the Abruzzese to withdraw from last year's VueltaWe are waiting for news from the team and in the meantime we are trying to understand what it could be. the role of our people in this Giro which is certainly Italian, but less and less Italian.
PS In the end, Ciccone had to throw in the towel. Tests confirmed that Giulio had a significant hematoma in the vastus lateralis muscle of his right quadriceps and a small tear in the fascia. His words: in the press release from Lidl-Trek.
