What does victory taste like? For Uno-X it’s a bottle of Faxe Kondi, a Danish soft drink after the company signed a big sponsorship deal with the team.

It’s made in the Faxe Bryggeri, “Faxe Brewery” by Royal Unibrew which has its HQ in the town of Faxe in Eastern Denmark. They also make beer as the name suggests. It’s not readily available outside Scandinavia, Norway is the second market after Denmark.

Kondi is Danish for “condition” or “fitness” and so hints at a sports drink. A sports drink? Maybe but with some irony. Faxe Kondi has sponsored Danish football leagues for years.

The announcement of the deal with the Uno-X team included a fun video featuring team boss Thor Hushovd in a green tracksuit like some 80s sports coach complete with an 80s song chanting “Take it to the limit”.

The logo features on the team kit and vehicles. Above all when Uno-X riders win, soigneurs hand out bottles. According to The Cycling Podcast Royal Brewery has paid a hefty sum for the deal and it’s surely written into the contract that the team has be seen celebrating with it. But is it a winner?

Tasting notes
The town of Faxe has a lakrids liquorice factory too, so there was some curiosity, would it have an unusual taste? Would it surge out of the can like a Uno-X rider attacking at KM0, then lead a chilly charge down the gullet with a long finish worthy of Jonas Abrahamsen?

No, it tastes of Sprite.

It is a clear liquid and moderately carbonated. There’s a light lemon and lime taste that’s more evocative of stainless steel vats of trisodium citrate and potassium carbonate than a stroll through a citrus grove.

Not having had Sprite for years, it was time to buy some and do a blind taste comparison. Get someone else to pour identical amounts into matching glasses, shuffle them on the table like the magician’s cup trick, all while your blogger’s eyes were closed.

Sipping and sampling like a wine anorak made it possible to tell them apart. One was better, with a richer taste and more body. Which one was it? Faxe Kondi. A triumph but it did not leave Sprite trailing, the two came to the finish together and Faxe Kondi was a bike length ahead. This was down to the superiority in flavour. It’s hardly a lemon and lime homebrew but has a richer, more rewarding taste.

Sprite has more calories, 47kcal of every per 100ml compared to 41kcal for Faxe Kondo. Kondi uses dextrose, 9.6g per 100ml and also a small amount of caffeine and salt too, 0.05g per 100ml. This means it certainly doesn’t taste salty but it can help thicken the feel.

Is it a sports drink? It’s marketed as such. Faxe Kondi has caffeine and quinine but seemingly because they are bitter and enhance the aroma. It’s got less energy than Sprite or Coke.

The peloton comparison is Red Bull which has 46kcal per 100ml, comparable. But the Austrian drink has at least four times the caffeine and is what might be called an “acquired taste”, users seem to tolerate the mouthwash or brake fluid aroma as the price of their caffeine fix; when was the last time you saw one of their riders with a can?

The Verdict
Tastes like Sprite but better. A cold can on a hot day is good.

It’s a World Tour team sponsor product you can enjoy in the moment. Only like a PostNL stamp or an FDJ scratchcard, the sales are limited unless you visit the team’s home country.

Uno-X riders might be paid to swig it after winning but it’s light, refreshing and includes useful carbs. It won’t make them faster but it will add to the satisfaction of victory. Skol.

The post Faxe Kondi Review first appeared on The Inner Ring.

The winning moment? No, rather than a breakthrough decisive moment, this Giro d’Italia gave us repeat results across multiple mountain stages. Jonas Vingegaard would attack mid-climb, Felix Gall would briefly give chase before deciding otherwise while the rest paced themselves as best they could. Each mountain stage felt like a Bayesian exercise in confirmation every each test brought the same result from Blockhaus to Piancavallo.

The race started in Bulgaria. These grand tour starts can be expensive, the value questionnable. But we got to see the country and watch Paul Magnier take his first win in a finish marred by a crash that blocked the whole road.

The next day another crash and more traumatic. It took out Jay Vine, Marc Soler, Santiago Buitrago and Adne Holter; the next day Adam Yates and Andrea Vendrame did not start. If UAE started without João Almeida, now their second GC rider was gone.

After a brief neutralisation things restarted. Vingegaard lead up the sharp climb out of Lyaskovets, at first it just looked like he wanted to be out of danger but he accelerated. Only Giulio Pellizzari and Lennert Van Eetvelt could follow him but they were all swept up in the finish. With hindsight this was tantalising moment, Vingegaard hustling for time but he’d soon prove more measured.

Thomas Silva won the stage, the first of several surprise winners; one theme. Another was that a handful of riders won most of the stages. Paul Magnier won again in Sofia. He, Vingegaard and Jhonatan Narvaez would win half the stages.

With the race back in Italy Movistar set the pace on the Crocetta pass to Consenza and popped all of the sprinters except their house fastman Orluis Aular. Only for UAE to have numbers in the finish too and Narvaez won the stage, the first of three wins for him.

The next day saw Igor Arrieta win ahead of Afonso Eulalio in a slapstick ending. Wet roads on day of biblical rain saw Arrieta and Eulalio take turns to crash and remount, as if there were banana skins on a Mario Kart route. Just as it looked like one was clear for the win, they crashed and the other surged past and so on. Live bookmakers must have made small fortune. Arrieta eventually won but Eulalio took the maglia rosa which he’d keep until Stage 14.

Eulalio’s time in pink suited Vingegaard as Bahrain committed to riding on the front of the peloton but with hindsight – which is what a blog review is for – giving the Portuguese rider such a lead meant he’d win the white jersey in Rome at the expense of Davide Piganzoli. It’s not like Visma could have adjusted a dial to give Eulalio less of a lead and his riding exceeded expectations but there are trade-offs when renting out the lead too.

Davide Ballerini won in Naples with a finish that everyone who saw the course thought “that U-turn on the cobbles before the finish looks risky for a bunch” and sure enough there was a crash even if most stayed upright.

Stage 7 was the longest in the race, a marathon 244km day to the Blockhaus climb on a Giro of otherwise short stages. Jonas Vingegaard attacked from far out. Giulio Pellizzari audaciously gave chase but his oxygen debt came with a hefty interest rate and he could not meet the repayments. Felix Gall came past like a pedalling preying mantis to finish second.

Blockhaus was informative. Foresight said Vingegaard was going to win and he confirmed this; hindsight showed him winning with Gall behind and everyone else further back. Indeed Vingegaard won every summit finish, Felix Gall was second on every summit finish and Jai Hindley was third on every summit finish, except Stage 9 to the Corno alle Scale. This was the final podium being repeated again and again. It was like going to see the same band multiple times in different venues and realise they played the same tunes each time.

Stage 10 was a time trial and if the Giro route seemed to be designed to lure Remco Evenepoel, this day was for Filippo Ganna. He won with almost two minutes on team mate Thymen Arensman which helped lift Arensman up to third place overall with Eulalio still in pink. Assuming Eulalio would fade, the question was if Arensman could sustain second place? Answers in the moment were hard to find with the media complaining he was refusing interviews. This might have protected him from fatigue and even stress but left the impression of a spectral figure with no voice. Vingegaard didn’t have a great ride but finished the day just where he needed to be.

Stage 11 to Chiavari saw Narvaez take another win at the expense of Enric Mas. The Movistar leader was publicly berated by his team for his lack of form but this time his tactics were questionable, although the sense that Narvaez could win in every scenario possible in the final 20km.

Stage 12 to Novi saw a masterpiece by Alec Segaert, an attack with 3km to go in three parts: a jump so sharp he quickly got a gap, a sustained effort to the line that nobody could match, and tactical awareness to time the move and exploit the course and other teams. We’re bound to see this again , and when he isn’t he’s a valuable workhorse too.

Alberto Bettiol is one of those riders who doesn’t win often but when he does it’s quality. Overhauling Michael Valgren, Josh Kench and above all a valiant Andreas Leknessund, he won in Verbania, home town of Filippo Ganna. It would have been romantic for Ganna to take a home win but it turned out to be doubly-so as Bettiol’s partner is from Verbania.

The Giro reached the Alps and Jonas Vingegaard won at Pila, his team riding down the breakaway. Gall second, Hindley third and Arensman losing time. Again you didn’t need to be Lieutenant Colombo to spot the pattern.

The stage to Milan was meant to be a sprint finish but Frederik Dversnes won the stage for Uno-X from the breakaway, crushing two Bardiani riders and one Polti-Malta. He got to enjoy the win but soon got criticism for the role motorbikes played in the finish in helping the break to stay away. Loyal readers might recall the story of a rider donating cases of wine of motorbike drivers in the Tour de France but here Dversnes was not to blame. There were times when the lead vehicles were close, equally it looked like the sprinters teams did not have the numbers to chase and each hoped another would work.

The Swiss stage to Carì was bis repetita for a summit finish, right down to Felix Gall briefly trying to follow Vingegaard, only for the Austrian to realise he could not handle the pace and sit back down.

Michael Valgren won Stage 17 to Andalo with an exquisitely-timed attack but the real triumph was to be there in the finish alongside riders who normally should have out-climbed him. For all his pedigree and experience this was his first grand tour stage win.

Stage 18 was both a surprise and a confirmation. The points competition had seen a duel at distance between Narvaez and Magnier but it got settled on this day when several teams toiled to set up a sprint finish on a day late in the third week normally for the breakaway. We got a reduced bunch of sixty riders from which Magnier was delivered by Jasper Stuyven to take a third win, and with it a clear lead in the competition. As it happened Narvaez would collide with a team bus after riding back from the finish and quit the race next day, an unwarranted exit but Magnier had got clear in the competition already.

The winner of the Stage 19? The results sheet said Sepp Kuss and he was first across the line but the scenery could share the podium with him. Stage 20 saw the final summit finish and a win for Vingegaard again with the same pattern of Gall next, then Hindley, with Arensman losing more time but no change on GC among the top-10. The final day in Rome saw Jonathan Milan win, a result he and his team needed more than most.

The Verdict
The pre-race favourite won in the pre-race predicted manner. His task made easier by rivals falling away through illness or accident, Jonas Vingegaard was never troubled.

Jonas Vingegaard’s Giro did not begin in Nessebar, nor on the Blockhaus. It started atop Hautacam last summer. He was trounced by his arch rival, losing two minutes in the first summit finish and left to needing to revise his plans. The Tour showed us he was better than everyone except Pogačar, the Giro here proved that again.

This was not a Giro of suspense and rovesciamento, reversal of fortune, it was the antithesis of last year’s Finestre extravaganza. If people still watched DVDs, the highlights video would not do much business apart from Denmark and maybe Austria.

Instead it felt like an exercise in the scientific method: we thought Vuelta and Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard was capable of winning the Giro. Sure enough he proved it, replicating success in several stages, each summit finish was an assertion of proof.

The chart above shows the GC standings during the race relative to Vingegaard. Arensman’s grey line is just above Vingegaard thanks to a time bonus taken on Stage 2. They all fall away on Blockhaus. Stage 10 is the time trial and if Arensman overhauls Gall on the day, Gall is consistently the second best climber while Hindley is almost as regular. Vingegaard finishes four minutes clear.

Vingegaard now has the “triple crown” of winning all three grand tours, a feat Tadej Pogačar has not managed, something his team are keen to point out as they still search for a replacement sponsor. Whatever people think of the man, he’s got a palmarès among the best. But now Vingegaard has ticked the box marked “Giro” it’s quite possible he never returns.

Felix Gall was never going to win but his second place is above expectations. L’Equipe’s Thomas Perotto deftly branded him the “eternal second” as he was always the runner-up in the mountains. He and Decathlon would have signed for this result in Bulgaria, and they’d have signed for it every morning during the race too. The worry was he’d slip up, literally. Perhaps aided by good weather he never made a mistake – unlike in Catalunya back March – and so never lost time because of a mishap. A more upright TT position helped, as did several altitude camps before the race including a last one at Etna, and even having his girlfriend drop by the hotels along the way apparently made a difference too for Gall’s performance and his first grand tour podium.

Jai Hindley finishes third thanks to dependable reliability. Regularly finishing third is no mean feat but he showed no sign of being able to finish second. Team mate Pellizzari was lively and probably over-inflated by the media coverage, he paid on the Blockhaus and then struggled with illness but still 22 and if he glances at Hindley on the podium he ought to see himself there next year.

For all the predictability on GC, the daily stage battles were good, boosted by cheerful weather. Take Movistar’s collective action on the stage to Cosenza, this may not prove a highlight of the season but it was something that provided spice to the stage and for hours on end too: if they didn’t gain, we did. Afonso Eulalio was a revelation even if he’s been quietly tipped for his abilities and we’ll see more from him. The points and mountains competitions were competitive late into the third week.

The Giro is in a bind. If it was a film, the casting director would not be up for any awards. The race struggles to get star names, and if it does then the big name steals the thunder. It’s not an easy trap to escape. The Tour de France is now five weeks away. No doubt we’ll see plenty of Danish flags being waved by holidaymakers but Vingegaard’s biggest fans in July could be the Giro organisers. If he can feel unburdened for the rest of the season with nothing to lose it could be good for the Giro and the Tour alike.

The post The Moment The Giro Was Won first appeared on The Inner Ring.

Rome and a victory parade. There is suspense to come. Don’t tune expecting action from start to finish, but there is massive pressure on Jonathan Milan to salvage a sprint win at the end.

Stage 20 Review: a fifth stage win for Jonas Vingegaard. Once again Felix Gall tried to follow Vingegaard’s move then thought better of it a few seconds later while the others could not move. Gall was second, Hindley third, the podium in order.

There was no little else to decrypt on a day that proved as formulaic as a sprint stage but Afonso Eulalio finished 7th, soaking up an attempt from Davide Piganzoli before countering and jumping away to secure the white jersey.

The Route: the same as usual, a trip to the coast and then back through the Eur district before laps around Rome.

The Contenders: imagine if Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) wins? Because it’s better than imagining he loses, hauling his carcass around Italy for three weeks and not winning a stage despite being rated among the best sprinters in the world and winning the points competition in this race twice. He’s been close this month, he’s got a solid lead-out and has made mistakes before that can be corrected today.

Paul Magnier (Soudal-Quickstep) has thrived in this Giro and jumped into every opening he’s got. He’s got three wins and the points jersey so can sit up and eat an ice cream if he wants but that’s hardly his style.

Dylan Groenewegen has been close but that’s his problem, the Rockets have a strong squad for the final 5km and the lead-out but their point man isn’t the force he used to be.

Tobias Lund (Decathlon-CMA CGM) has been close and now gets a team ready to help him again.

	Milan
	Magnier
	Groenewegen, Lund

Weather: sunny and 29°C

TV: KM0 is at 4.45pm and the finish is forecast for 6.45pm CEST. Tune in for the sprint finish.

Postcard from Rome
Today’s finishing circuit goes past the Colosseum, the amphitheatre that used to host gladiatorial fights for pleasure of the Emperor and others, something that most people have evolved beyond.

One of the traditions was the Emperor could raise a thumb or lower it to seal the fate of a fighter, something that could not happen today.

Only one rider who won’t see the Colosseum today is Bardiani’s Enrico Zanoncello. He was thrown off the race after the Milan stage for head-butting another rider. Some brief video footage doing the rounds shows him heading Robert Donaldson of Jayco who crashes hard, sliding at speed. An “act of blatant aggression” wrote Cycling Weekly.

Embed from Getty Images

Only did Zanoncello really deserve this instant verso pollice judgement? It’s more likely a wave of riders sees GFDJ’s Paul Penhoët collided with Zanoncello and the Italian is left trying to stay upright and in the split second this balancing act sees his neck and head hit Donaldson rather than a move designed to intimidate or destabilise Donaldson, who was after all going backwards having done his lead-out work.

If a bigger name rider was involved or just from bigger team things might have been different. See the appeal by Peter Sagan and the UCI after his exclusion from the 2017 Tour de France for the case study. But as a ProTeam reliant on a wildcard invite there’s less room for Bardiani to argue back, they’re supposed to gallop away at KM0 and provide animation, not litigation. This does feel a bit Roman.

Only so much though. The commissaires at the Giro are not reclining on velvet seats while being fed grapes. They’re volunteers, often taking unpaid time off work and given a €200 per day allowance, an economy flight to and from the race and the beige chinos/navy blazer uniform and little else. In exchange they get privilege to see the race up close but it’s not the imperial tribune.

It won’t be fixed today but given team budgets have soared, even for Bardiani, any rulings can be very expensive for riders and teams on the ruling end. Another Sagan-like incident from 2017 this summer or next and – these things happen after an incident, not out of foresight – soon there could be calls to professionalise cycling’s referees, or if not have some kind of tribunal on stand-by.

The post Giro d’Italia Stage 21 Preview first appeared on The Inner Ring.

The final mountain stage. If you plan to watch, note the timing is different so that TV coverage can switch to the start of the women’s Giro which begins today.

Stage 19 Review: a breathtaking stage, and that was just the scenery. The fresh green foliage of early summer, the jagged peaks with their last stripes of snow, and deep blue skies. It was even better because of the racing.

Tudor surged on the Passo Duran with Michael Storer and Mathys Rondel on the attack. Derek Gee-West joined them as did others and a group coalesced with Giulio Ciccone, Giulio Pellizzari, Einer Rubio, plus Sepp Kuss as a watchman for Visma. Ben O’Connor was briefly there but could not hold on. The group was a clear threat to others with top-10 positions on GC to defend so it had a hard time riding away but slowly took time. Netcompany-Ineos and even Decathlon-CMA CGM had to ride later on to ensure the move was contained.

Ciccone was sprinting for the mountains points all day and got into a beef with Einer Rubio when the Colombian started to challenge him for these. When Rubio went for the intermediate sprint he got heckled by Storer and Gee-West, they wanted the time bonuses but perhaps didn’t realise Rubio leads the Red Bull classification so had a reason to go here. When Rubio sprinted again on the final pass of the the day, the Falzarego, Ciccone was stung into action and attacked solo. He took a minute on the descent but it was insufficient on the final climb, sapped by the flat valley road he was fading, his pedal stroke was less a tell and more a broadcast.

Pellizzari and Kuss attacked with Gee-West trying to follow, only for Pellizzari to blow and wait for his team mate Jai Hindley. Kuss then sprinted past Ciccone to take the stage, with Ciccone unable to help Gee-West much. The Italian now has the mountains jersey but to use an Italian idiom, he’s put “too much meat on the fire”, as in he’s been fighting on several fronts and having lost his cool with Rubio might have cost him the stage. That’s conditional given how well Kuss was moving.

For all Tudor’s commendable audacity, the net result was they cracked Ben O’Connor who slid from 10th to 14th meaning Rondel is now 11th overall or top onze in French. Two other changes on GC to note with Egan Bernal 10th overall thanks to O’Connor’s slide, but Netcompany-Ineos won’t cheer given the other move was Thymen Arensman falling off the provisional podium, he was dropped on the final climb and Jai Hindley is up to third. Also Jhonatan Narvaez did not finish the stage, with reports he was sore after colliding with an unnamed team bus after Stage 18.

The Route: 200km and 3,750m of vertical gain. A flat dash across the plains after a start to commemorate the 50th anniversary of an earthquake and disaster. The first climb of the day is 7km at under 6%, nothing severe but with a series of fun hairpins.

It’s up to Piancavallo on the main road, the ski station access route that’s built for traffic. It’s 14km at almost 8% and that’s comparable to Alpe d’Huez but the difference is today is more irregular, the first half is steeper with some 10% and even 800m of 12% along the way. Then it’s 6-7% with even a flat part in the second half.

It’s down from Piancavallo via a small backroad amid forests and mid-way there’s a brief rise and then a series of tricky, irregular hairpins. At Lake Barcis the route is on a main road that loops back to the Piancavallo climb again.

The Finish: the Piancavallo climb again. The slope eases to 4% once in town.

The Contenders: Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-LAB) is again the easy pick, his team can try to keep the breakaway within range and then he’s got a long climb that is perfect for him, steep slopes to shake off his rivals that then ease for him to go into time-trial mode and gain time on others.

It’ll be hard for other GC rivals to get a look-in but the way the slope eases does leave Vingegaard exposed if he hasn’t distanced them.

The breakaway has a good chance, more space to build up a lead but ideally contenders for the summit finish go clear with a colleague tasked with towing the group clear. Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull) has got some energy back but can he go for the stage or does Jai Hindley’s third place the absolute goal? This makes him a harder pick.

Can Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) relax now? He’s got the mountains jersey and can secure this with a few points on the first time up Monte Cavallo and with this he ought feel less pressure to take the stage, he doesn’t have to go in the breakaway.

	Vingegaard
	Pellizzari, Ciccone, Gall, Hindley
	Rubio, Harper

Weather: sunny and 30°C

TV: KM0 is at 11.00am and the finish is forecast for 4.00pm CEST. The first time up Piancavallo begins at 1.55pm and the second time at 3.20pm.

This earlier finish is because the first stage of the Giro Donne is on TV after the men’s stage finishes. The stage is by the coast, as flat as a piadina and a Lorena Wiebes win looks likely.

Postcard from Piancavallo
Want to go skiing on Monte Cavallo today? Then just bring your skis and boots. Never mind the absence of snow, there is now a synthetic ski run and so can ski here every day of the year. It’s not very long so few will travel far for the experience of sliding down a plastic slope.

The plastic slope could get crowded in winter. The ski resort sits at 1,200m and lifts can take skiers up to 1,805m. That’s low for a ski resort. It’s not a “car park + ski lift” either. This is a purpose-built resort with hotels and inns, nothing vast but one of those places where you climb up a mountain and find incongruous urban architecture. Its selling point had been the first resort in Italy to have artificial snow cannons, almost a guarantee of snow.

Only these days it can be too mild for the snow cannons to work. In recent years the local press has headlines of the resort having no snow. What to do? It’s a question many similar places are facing, in Italy and beyond. Some are closing, ski lifts rusting in the wind, hotels boarded up.

Piancavallo is doubling down. Hosting a Giro stage is part of this, a way to draw people to the resort for day-out but also to remind TV viewers that it exists as a destination for hiking and il biking, Italian for mountain biking.

One thing Piancavallo has going for it is that if there’s no snow in winter then it can still have better weather than down below. It’s where the mountains meet the pianura friulana plains and in winter the flat land below can be blanketed in fog formed by cold air stuck below the mountains. So people drive up to get above the clouds and find sunshine.

All this has an effect on pro cycling. The highest ski resorts can do without the publicity of the Giro and the Tour de France, they don’t have to invest as much in alternative activities, even if the summer can be lucrative. But for other places cycling is increasingly a salvation and something to buy into. Literally in the case of today.

The post Giro d’Italia Stage 20 Preview first appeared on The Inner Ring.

The Queen Stage? Yes, but at 151km today’s stage is minor royalty. It’ll still be entertaining and scenic too.

Tri-Paul: an impromptu sprint stage. With few obvious sprint stages to start with and some of those leaving the sprinters thwarted and even sore, several teams conspired to keep a lid on the day’s modest breakaway and then deter further attacks with Lidl-Trek, NSN and UAE all active here and the field split under the pressure and regrouped. The climbs along the day saw other moves contained; plus a crash for Afonso Eulalio but no injury give he attacked on the Ca’ del Poggio climb but couldn’t get a gap but this helped condense the bunch down to about 60 riders.

If yesterday’s preview did not consider a bunch sprint outcome – mea culpa – the finish did not seemed designed for it either. But this allowed Jasper Stuyven to lead out Paul Magnier and force Jonathan Milan again to find another route around riders. Magnier was clear and takes back the points jersey with a 37 point advantage. There are 12-8-5-3-1 at the intermediate sprint today and tomorrow and 15-12-9-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 so Narvaez needs to score big and then hope Magnier fumbles the sprint in Rome; in practical terms this is unlikely but Magnier’s biggest challenge is the next two stages and the time limit. He said he did not think of the sprint yesterday because he’s so tired.

The Route: 151km and 4,800m of vertical gain. There’s a hilly 45km to the first pass on a small backroad, terrain for the breakaway to form but their challenge is to stay away for the day.

The Passo Duran marks the start of the climbing and it’s hard at the start, plenty of 10-12% for the first two thirds before easing. The final 100km have almost no flat roads except for a brief moment before the final climb. The descents matter today too, they’re frequently steep and with tight, irregular corners.

The Passo Giau is long and steep, 10km at almost 10% and with its 29 hairpins hard for anyone struggling to follow the pace as they can get shaken off on these bends.

The Finish: not a famous pass or anything like that, this is a small road to a ski lift in winter and the start of hiking trails in summer, all below the cragged peaks of Monte Civetta. It’s consistently steep.

The Contenders: Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-LAB) is the easy pick, he’s out-climbing everyone so why turn down another stage win? But this all hangs on whether his team will work all day because there’s little point in Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe or Netcompany-Ineos mowing down the breakaway today as they’d just gift the win to Vingegaard; but little rather than zero given Red Bull might want to soften up Arensman on the climbs. Several teams might also see if they can test Felix Gall on the descents.

Breakaway picks are Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) but he might be caught between sprinting for mountains points and the stage. He’s 81 points behind Vingegaard for the blue mountains jersey and if there’s 50 for Cima Coppi, he’ll need the 40 pointer Duran early on too as the other’s offer 18 points. He can do it today, the trick will be to score tomorrow too.

Einer Rubio (Movistar) is climbing well. Will Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull) go clear again? He’s been making moves but not looked incisive yet, instead team mate Giulio Pellizzari might try and grab a consolatory stage win now that he’s 20th overall and almost 37 minutes down so a new name to watch for the breakaway but does he try today or save it for tomorrow which might suit the breakaway more?

	Vingegaard
	–
	Ciccone, Rubio, Pellizzari

Weather: sunny but cooler, 23°C at the start and then mid-way in between the climbs.

TV: KM0 is at 12.20pm, the Passo Giau begins around 3.20pm and the finish is forecast for 5.15pm CEST.

Postcard from Alleghe
Today’s finish is deserving of its own postcard, a wish-you-were-here paean to the Dolomites and the Giro because this is a picture-postcard scenery, a finish above Alleghe with its blue lake, and with Monte Civetta towering above.

If yesterday’s postcard touched on the origins of the Dolomites, it’s not all about events from millions of years ago. The lake near the finish today only appeared in the late 18th century following a giant rockfall. If this happened, what could happen next?

There’s probably more chance lakes are formed today by human actions like the construction of hydroelectric dams. The nearby Vajont disaster in 1963 – commemorated by the 2013 Giro – saw a huge block of rock slide into the newly filled lake following the construction of a giant dam, causing a massive wave that flooded the area below killing around 2,000 people. It happened because the faults and geology were poorly understand at the time, and also ignored in part too.

Natural phenomenons occur too. A year ago yesterday in Switzerland a glacier fell apart, causing a huge landslide with three million cubic metres of rock, ice, water and mud coming down the mountain to bury much of the village of Blatten. Fortunately this had been predicted and the locals evacuated a week before but that counts as a narrow escape. Alas one shepherd died but things could have been a lot worse.

These events are likely to become more frequent. Dramatic events like the Swiss one grab the headlines but it’s the smaller rockfalls that are proliferating. The Alps are warming up about twice as fast as the surrounding area. Rock and ice that is habitually frozen at high altitude all year is now subject to more frequent cycles of melting and freezing and so the mountains are at risk of falling apart faster. The Dolomites are especially prone with their softer limestone rock according to Professor Nicolas Casagli, a specialist in geo-engineering from Florence University who studies the mountains and is a media-go to in Italy for these events.

Roads here are regularly being closed because of landslides and the repairs are expensive. This is forcing local authorities to review the costs and benefits: is it worth clearing a road if it will be buried again soon? Should tens of millions be spent securing the roads with coverings and other fortifications to keep them open as important traffic arteries? If so, then who pays locals, the region or the country?

The Alps took millions of years to form and they’ll be there for millions more. The forces that made them are still pushing the peaks upwards rather than making them collapse. Any change in the rate of erosion is tiny in relative terms. But it is a noticeable pre-occupation of residents, the local newspapers as well as geologists, hydrologists and public safety officials alike. If the Giro organisers are worried about snowfall affecting the race in the Alps every year, in the near future rockfall could become a similar concern too.

The post Giro d’Italia Stage 19 Preview first appeared on The Inner Ring.

A last chance for the breakaway. Today’s stage is hillier than it looks.

The Art of the Breakaway: the best actors can have great scripts, the best comedians great lines but what makes them stand out is timing. Michael Valgren made his winning attack with 1,200m with such exquisite timing that he could try the stage, or if not then talk to Tudor about a contract.

It was a lively day with a breakaway up the road and a counter move chasing hard for a long time, all while the bunch didn’t want to give them any room either. Hot sunshine turned to a downpour when Rémi Cavagna floated away solo and took two minutes but he seemed to crack and was hauled in.

In the hilly finish riders kept attacking, more would jump across. Einer Rubio and Michael Valgren were away but with only a few seconds on Damiano Caruso, Igor Arrieta, Andreas Leknessund and Aleksandr Vlasov. Arrieta bridged across and then the rest came back. Valgren had a thespian touch when shaking his head towards Rubio so say he was, unwilling or unable to take a pull on the climb to the finish in Andalo. With the climb done they were spread across the road, each looking for someone else to lead.

Just as the road flattened out with 1,200m Valgren hit them with a perfect attack. Starting at the back of the group, and just as others were looking at each other and tired, it felt like Valgren couldn’t have found a better microsecond to make his move.

Damiano Caruso moved up to ninth overall, continuing his tradition of soaring on GC in the third week. And Jhonathan Narvaez now leads the points competition with 12 points on Paul Magnier. The final stage in Rome offers 50-35-25-18-14-12-10-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 points.

The Route: a stage out of the mountains and there are some passes to climb but they’re not even marked. Today’s stage is hilly with plenty of unmarked climbs, starting with the road to Cicezzano, 6km at 5%.

Once out of the Alpine valleys and into the Valdobbiadene and its prosecco-producing vineyards there are several hills. The one after the sprint point is hard going at times with some 7%.

The Ca’ del Poggio is a wall-like climb, one kilometre at 12% and with a 20% section halfway. It’s a famous local climb and has been in the Giro and other races before.

The Finish: a flat run into town. There’s a sharp right bend with 300m to go and then it’s downhill to the line; unadvisable for a sprint finish but the field should be thinned out by now.

The Contenders: a stage open to plenty as long as they can cope with the sharp climbs and better still, profit from them. Alberto Bettiol (XDS-Astana) has already proved this but as mentioned before he’s far from a prolific winner. Jhonatan Narvaez (UAE) feels like a copy-paste pick but suited to the course while team mate Antonio Morgado feels like the UAE rider we’ve barely seen but this stage ought to be good for him.

Toon Aerts (Lotto-Intermarché) has shown he can handle brief climbs and win, we’ll see if he can do this into the third week of a grand tour.

Michael Valgren (EF) could try again but he showed how heavier riders can still score so Jasper Stuyven (Soudal-Quickstep) is worth watching.

	–
	Narvaez, Bettiol, Stuyven
	Aerts, Morgado, Ulissi, Zambanini, Sheffield

Weather: 30°C and sunshine but with clouds building during the day.

TV: KM0 is at 12.20pm and the finish is forecast for 5.15pm CEST.

Postcard from Levico Terme
Today’s stage is in the Dolomites. No high mountain passes today but the Sugana valley used by much of the route today tends to mark the southern border of this mountain range topped by the Marmolada at 3,343m.

The Alps form an arc spanning several countries and there are many subdivisions, often labelled because of geology. The Dolomites, dolomiti in Italian, are made of, wait for it, dolomite rock. It is named after Gratet de Dolomieu, a French mineralogist who discovered the rock was different to regular limestone on account of its high magnesium content. A cousin of sedimentary limestone, it’s different to, say, the volcanic basalt and granite that form other parts of the Alps.

You’ll find dolomite all over the world, from Kansas to Tochigi. And not all the Italian Dolomites are made out of dolomite. Plus the exact map of the Dolomites is hard to pin down, the Italian Alpine club’s Alpenvereinseinteilung der Ostalpen says it is Zones 51, 52 and 53 in the map below, highlighted here in Giro-pink for you:

Pro cycling is heavily reliant on geology. All the mountain passes, climbs and even the flatlands we celebrate are the result of millions of years of terra-formation. But rarely mentioned, except in the Giro when the Dolomites appear on the horizon. Nobody speaks of the Carnic Alps or the Julian Alps, two nearby ranges; ditto in the Tour de France, the two day visit to Alpe d’Huez will happen without a mention of the Grandes Rousses range. If you want to be a pedant the Dolomites have subdivisions too: today’s stage is in the Brenta Dolomites, the western side.

Instead what if the Dolomites were also a social construction? The magnesium content can give the rocks a more pinkish hue which is appealing at sunrise and sunsets, it has attracted poets and painters before, today Instagrammers. There are popular ski resorts here that bid for the Giro. Also they’re close to some of Italy’s cycling heartlands with nearby industry and population centres. Some of the passes are old routes from Italy to Austria, and not the 1930s onwards ski resorts custom-built for car and bus access – think Sestriere – and so the passes twist and turn up the mountain more than usual which gives the roads more appeal and a greater sporting challenge. All these factors combine to make them a popular and rewarding outdoor destination.

The post Giro d’Italia Stage 18 Preview first appeared on The Inner Ring.

At the start of the Giro this would have been “the breakaway day” for everyone with dreams of a life-changing stage win. It could still be but with several sprinters’ teams struggling for success and Paul Magnier needing points they now have an interest to try and lock this down.

Encore: another stage win for Jonas Vingegaard, his fourth and this time in the maglia rosa so a photo to keep. He attacked in the last 7km of the climb, very much his style to surge clear to get a gap, then keep going to gradually take more time. Felix Gall tried to respond but surrendered to reason after 14 pedal strokes and finished in second but only just, with Jai Hindley, Thymen Arensman and Derek Gee-West near by.

Red Bull had worked hard but it gained Hindley three seconds on Arensman but Giulio Pellizzari cracked, losing 18 minutes and sliding to 19th overall, a disastro said the Giro website. It means Afonso Eulalio is in the white jersey but Davide Piganzoli is 2m17s behind and probably fancies his chances.

For all the stasis overall, there’s a lot going in the secondary classifications. Giulio Ciccone was out points hunting and got 54 points for winning the first four climbs… but Vingegaard got 50 for the final one. The arithmetic looks very difficult for the Italian. Jhonathan Narvaez seems to know his maths better and closed in on Paul Magnier’s points lead, now just two points in it.

The Route: 202km and the hardest climbing comes early with the Passo dei Tre Termini, 8km at 6%. The Cocca di Lodrino is what Italians call pedalabile, literally “pedalable” as you won’t be walking up and it’s a big ring climb of 8km at 4%. The intermediate sprint looks like a climb on the profile but it’s a drag up the main valley road. The unmarked climb to San Lorenzo Dorsino is 2km at 7%.

The Finish: into the town of Andalo and then back out for a loop that includes some climbing. It’s all on wide roads but the gradient gets difficult for plenty, it suits punchy riders. From the 4km to go point to the 1km point it climbs at 6%,

The Contenders: a breakaway or sprint? Probably a breakaway, as if the sprinters crave an extra shot at the win, several will find today’s stage is too mountainous for them which leaves few teams willing to try. Paul Magnier has a tiny chance, Dylan Groenewegen none. Movistar can try playing their Orluis Aular card again but it might well benefit someone else again.

Breakaway picks are Jhonatan Narvaez (UAE) but with fatigue unknown after all the accumulated efforts and he might just want to grab points at the intermediate sprint as he only needs three to fleece the ciclamino off Paul Magnier’s shoulders. Team mate Igor Arrieta is suited too.

Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X), Ludovico Crescioli (Polti-Malta) and Michael Valgren (EF) are outside picks.

Alberto Bettiol (XDS-Astana) is suited but he’s such a rare winner that once feels like a lot, we’ll see if soon to be 37 year old Diego Ulissi can play a role.

Edoardo Zambanini (Bahrain) sprints well from a reduced group and is a local along the route today.

	–
	Narvaez, Ciccone, Silva, Valgren
	Crescioli, Aular, Leknessund, Aerts, Ulissi, Bettiol, Zambanini

Weather: sunny, 30°C

TV: KM0 is at 12.20pm and the finish is forecast for 5.15pm CEST.

Postcard from Andalo
The Giro last came here in 2016. That day Alejandro Valverde won Stage 16, pipping Steven Kruijswijk for the win but the Dutchman was arguably the bigger winner as he took the time bonus for second and had distanced all the other riders in the field. The second-placed rider on GC was Esteban Chaves at three minutes, Valverde was next and then came Vincenzo Nibali and Ilnur Zakarin, both almost five minutes down. Stages 17 and 18 were flatter days with wins for Roger Kluge and Matteo Trentin.

Stage 19 reversed all of that. After cresting the giant Colle dell’Agnello Kruijswijk went wide on a corner, he seemed to lock-up, as if fixated by the approaching wall of snow and collided with the bank of ice, causing him to somersault over the bars and land hard on the road. Nobody waited – why should they? – and Kruijswijk was now isolated with no team mates and over 50km to ride. Nibali rode way for the win and Kruijswijk finished almost five minutes down. Chaves took the overall lead and the following day Nibali overhauled Chaves to win the race.

Should Vingegaard be worried given his team lost the Giro after things had looked so comfortable? Never say never as accidents happen but back then Nibali remarked Kruijswijk had three weaknesses: descending, the propensity for a bad day in a grand tour and a weak team. Kruijswijk alas was confronted with all of these on the Agnello. Vingegaard is a different customer.

The post Giro d’Italia Stage 17 Preview first appeared on The Inner Ring.

A stage in Switzerland or Svizzera to locals, and also a share of the pro peloton and more.

The Route: just 113km but 3,000m of vertical gain amid a strange route. It’s up the valley, then a turning to the right into a side valley for two laps with the steep but regular climb of Leontica. Then back down to the main valley again where there’s a drag up to the intermediate sprint.

The Finish: this south-facing finish is steep with lots of 10% sections and has featured in the Tour de Suisse, Adam Yates won here in 2024 alongside João Almeida. The first 8km are the hardest and then comes a small descent through the village of Campello but it’ll on a straight road, not easy for outsider to float away. Then once out of the village it’s onto the main ski station access road, wider and steadier; that 13% max on the graphic above is only from taking the inside line through a hairpin.

The Contenders: if Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-LAB) wants to win then he can. He and his team can copyi tactics from Saturday’s Alpine stage by putting his team to work. There’s even less time for the breakaway to form, then build up a lead. The big question is whether he wants to freewheel to Rome instead and spare his team mates today.  The small question is if he could try to get Davide Piganzoli into a winning position, easier said than done as Felix Gall is out-climbing him.

If not there’s space for some riders to win. There might be a looming energy crisis but this is not bothering Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) and his darting attacks are lively but perhaps today he needs to get in the breakaway and hide while a couple of team mates like Sobrero and Ghebreigzabhier pull on the front of the group to tow him clear. He seems the best pick, Enric Mas (Movistar) is short of form and his team management have said this out loud, Einer Rubio is not looking decisive either.

Jan Christen (UAE) winning in Switzerland should be more than appropriate but he’s looking less and less sizzling.

	Vingegaard
	Ciccone, Piganzoli
	Mas, Rubio, Vlasov

Weather: 33°C in the valley, 24°C at the finish.

TV: KM0 is at 2.00pm and the finish is forecast for 5.15pm CEST.

Postcard from Bellinzona
Today’s stage is 100% Swiss but the Giro ought to feel at home as the canton of Ticino is home to many. Literally, for example Filippo Ganna lives in Ascona just near the start and the area has long been home for Italian cyclists looking to save on tax and also live somewhere more private.

Leave Bellinzona in another direction and a few minutes away is Lamone which is home to… the UAE team. It’s where the team is legally based even if it has a servizio corse near Bergamo in Italy. It inherited both from its past as the Lampre team but has stayed here. For all the promotion of the UAE as a country it says something that the team opts not to have their legal base there.

Similarly Aussie team Jayco is based here. Riders who sign with the team have a contract with “GreenEDGE Cycling SAGL”, a Swiss company in nearby Lugano.

Teams are free to shop around for the jurisdiction to suit. Unibet Rose Rockets ride under a French flag but only because Dutch teams are forbidden from promoting gambling companies like Unibet and so the squad has a postal/legal address in French, stone’s through from the Belgian border and nothing more French; team cars have Dutch plates etc. Belgian team Soudal-Quickstep is legally run out of Luxembourg but elects for a Belgian flag when it registers with the UCI.

As suggested here before Decathlon-CMA CGM could finance Paul Seixas’s new contract by switching to a Swiss jurisdiction, all while keeping a French flag and licence but no longer paying French payroll taxes; former Groupama-FDJ boss Marc Madiot used to quip his highest paid rider was the tax office as it took more of the wage bill than anyone else. But Decathlon is also backed by two of the richest families in France and so it may not be bothered either.

Today’s stage though is not about taxes, but the fun of it which is what matters. This Swiss stage is the work of several locals including Rocco Cattaneo, an ex-pro who’s been senior at the UCI, president of the European Cycling Union, and has been a Swiss parliamentarian too. They hosted the Tour de Suisse here in 2024 and had such a great time they approached the Giro and were awarded the stage. The only hiccup is they had other plans for the route but ended up with today’s 110km micro-stage but they get their finish in Carì and another day to party.

The post Giro d’Italia Stage 16 Preview first appeared on The Inner Ring.

Is it a stage or a criterium? This Sunday’s Giro stage has the feel of a final Sunday but the race has a week left.

Stage 14 Review: the Aosta valley showed off in early summer hues, a palette of colours and at the finish, views of Monte Rosa, “pink mountain” and one of the highest peaks of the Alps and no crowbar needed to jam in idea that the stage and pink jersey were taken by Jonas Vingegaard.

A strong breakaway had gone clear but they probably needed a longer route to build up more of an advantage by the final climb, and the move had no opportunists looking to move up the GC. Giulio Ciccone and Einer Rubio again traded attacks, but again they were mowed down by Visma and overhauled by Vingegaard.

The climb to the Pila ski station did not offer much surprise, although Ben O’Connor did crack early and Davide Piganzoli did another ride to confirm he’s climbing faster than Sep Kuss. Afonso Eulalio was dropped but remains second overall; third placed Felix Gall is out-climbing everyone except Vingegaard while Red Bull pair Jai Hindley and Giulio Pellizari appear to be skirmishing rather than collaborating. Thymen Arensman faded on the climb but limited his losses while pedalling in his serpentine style, his body bending left and right as he advanced up the climb.

If a leitmotif of this Giro is Vingegaard keeps being where he needs to be, that holds firm. He talked of riding more defensively but he hardly needs to mark rivals when he can put almost a minute into them with a late attack on a final climb.

One side-story was Jhonatan Narvaez in the breakaway, winning the intermediate sprint and taking the purple jersey by one point from Paul Magnier. This sets up a duel for the final week with Magnier needing to score big on today and next Sunday’s Rome stages which offer more points; but it could be advantage Narvaez as he could well win another stage and the intermediate sprints next week come late in the stage, after plenty of climbs.

The Route: a start in Voghera, a trip to Pavia to nod to the start of Milan-Sanremo and then a ride into Milan and four laps of 16km circuit on wide roads, complete with their share of urban infrastructure.

The Contenders: a sprint finish on the cards. Paul Magnier (Soudal-Quickstep) wins by recent precedent thanks to two stage wins. Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek) winning in Milan would sound fitting… to foreign ears, as it’s Milano to Italians but linguistics aside this finish suits him well.

Tobias Lund (Decathlon-CMA CGM) has a great lead-out, likewise Dylan Groenewegen (Unibet-Rose Rockets)

	Milan
	Magnier
	Lund, Groenewegen, Van Uden, Plowright

Weather: sunny and 32°C.

TV: KM0 is at 1.55pm and the finish is forecast for 5.15pm CEST. Tune in for the sprint finish.

Postcard from Milan
Is it a stage or a criterium? Cycling is a rural sport and it’s no bad thing for the Giro to exist Italy’s commercial capital and the second largest city by population. Especially as there seems to have been some difficulty between the organisers and the city in recent years. See how “Milan”-Sanremo now starts in Pavia which gets the nod during the stage today too.

And yet this feels like a half-stage, an interlude, an exhibition. We’ll get a sprint finish but surely no change on GC. This would be the same if the race had ridden 150km from point to point to, but at least it would have travelled rather than going in circles.

What if the Rome and Milan stages could be reversed along the route? This way have a Rome stage mid-race as the Giro heads past during its lap of Italy at some point during the first two weeks. Crucially alter the Rome stage to make it more lively. The “City of Seven Hills” could show off the city very well while also providing great sport. It could even help the city by showing off some of the less famous spots and signalling to tourists that there is more than the overcrowded hotspots.

Milan by contrast is flat so today’s stage route could be the template for a final stage. The Tour de France has spiced up the final stage of late but the Giro particularly needs a prize for the sprinter in the third week, or prizes plural otherwise many simply go home. All easier written than done, but that’s the point of a postcard.

The post Giro d’Italia Stage 15 Preview first appeared on The Inner Ring.

The Giro heads into the Alps with a short but very vertical stage.

Stage 14 Review: an early breakaway was joined by a counter-move to put 13 riders in the lead and they had a ticket for the day. There were no big moves on the flat, it was all about the final climbs. Groupama-FDJ had three in the break. They pulled for Josh Kench, shattering the group and when the New Zealdander attacked and only three could follow: Alberto Bettiol, Andreas Leknessund and Michael Valgren. Not bad company for the neo-pro to hang with.

Leknessund then went solo but was paying for it, his cadence dropping like a toy with empty batteries. Bettiol was behind, spinning a low gear and taking the sharpest line through every bend, he was locked onto the Norwegian champ.

He caught Leknessund and jumped passed him with a sharp attack. Solo, there was no catching him. If plenty wanted local rider Filippo Ganna to shine, Bettiol is an adopted local too as his girlfriend Lisa is from the finish town of Verbania and he knew every metre of the final climb.

The Route: just 133km but 4,250m of vertical gain. This is an Aosta city and Aosta valley tribute stage, which owes itself to the fiasco of 2023 when the Giro was supposed to start here on Stage 13 and ride to Switzerland but riders were scared about a descent mid-way. So the compromise solution was to skip the start… but do the dodgy descent. This left local politicians fuming and some swearing the Giro would never be back. It returned last year and is back again so the hatchet has been buried, presumably with the Giro offering a cut-price deal.

The climbing starts in the neutral zone and then tackles the 16km climb to Saint-Barthélémy, and if it averages 6.5% that’s because there’s a flat section a quarter of the way up and a descent halfway, the rest is often 8-9% and all on the south-facing slopes where vines grow amid rocky walls so it’ll be hot from the start too.

This is a difficult start as riders go all out to establish the breakaway while the GC contenders have to keep near the front in order not to lose ground and so there’s a lot of energy spent by all in the first 30 minutes.

There’s a wider road back down to the valley. There’s more climbing and all on the south-facing slopes amid vineyards.

The Finish: a 16.5km climb all the way to the line. Cut out the first 2km that lead away from the valley floor and it’s 14.5km at 7.5% and a tough climb that winds up through plenty of hairpins and where the slope never quite settles down.

The Contenders: Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-LAB) is the easy pick. He’s out-climbed everyone and now finds a stage even more suited. We’ll get a health check, he told Italian TV yesterday evening he was fine… but he coughed before a word came out. The final climb is consistently difficult all the way up, there are almost no points where someone who he’s not worried about can sneak away and build up a lead. It’s also a chance to put the squeeze on others including Thymen Arensman.

Felix Gall has been climbing very well but enough to ride away? We’ve not seen it. But we’ll see if he can regain time on Arensman and the others.

The breakaway has a good chance as Visma won’t, or can’t control the stage from start to finish. The uphill start is also ideal for the eventual stage winners as strong climbers can go clear rather than opportunists.

Enric Mas and Einer Rubio (Movistar) have been riding well and have terrain to suit. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) has used up a lot of energy in his stage-hunting quest so far.

Aleksandr Vlasov is an outside pick, he’s been able to go in breakaways so far but maybe he is on team duty today.

Jefferson Cepeda (EF) and Rémy Rochas (Groupama-FDJ) are two of the lightest riders in the race but the form and their results make them harder picks. Harold Martín López (XDS-Astana) is another small climber but possibly more likely to win here.

	Vingegaard
	Mas, Rubio, Ciccone, Gall
	H Lopez, Poels, Christen

Weather: sunny and 31°C in the valley. Much of the stage is on the south-facing slopes and they are often rocky or have stone walls to radiate heat back. The final climb is cooler with more shade.

TV: KM0 is at 13.05pm and the finish is forecast for 5.15pm CEST. Tune in early to watch the fight for the breakaway and then to see the rest of the stage evolve.

Postcard from Aosta
Today’s finish is in Pila, a ski resort directly connected to the city of Aosta by cable car. The local rider of the day is, or rather was, Maurice Garin, winner of the inaugural Tour de France in 1903.

The Aosta region is bilingual with French but today Italian dominates. But this explains why Garin was named after his father Maurice and not Maurizio when born in Arvier, just up the valley from Aosta. The town of Arvier doesn’t make much play of this, the municipal website mentions Garin but one page says he was born in 1871, another 1872. Plus he left the region early to find work in France as a child. After retiring as a cyclist he remained in France and ran a garage in Lens for almost 50 years. He is buried in nearby Sallaumines. He’s not celebrated there either, although a cycle path is named after him.

Back in the Aosta valley and Garin is a local name, there are several villages called Garin, there’s even a Garin mountain pass too. The city of Aosta has a Via Garin main road but this is not a tribute to the Tour de France winner.

However there is the Via Maurice Garin, a back alley on the edge of town. It’s not hardly prestigious but it does almost tell a story. Garin began a chimney sweep, became a cyclist and ended up running a garage. The Via Maurice Garin today mirrors this with the Termo Team heating and plumbing business at one end, the road, and at the other end the Gallo tire garage. Hardly veneration, but maybe fitting.

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