In this Tour d’Italie, only the French win, who don’t get angry, but rejoice in being strong.
They lose the yellow jersey of Bardet, but they take home a sumptuous stage with the 23-year-old talent from Normandy Kevin Vauquelin, who more than deservedly wins the stage in a festive Emilia Romagna, which exudes joy and passion from every pore.
This 23-year-old lad from Calvados wins. His French colleagues say he has what it takes to become a great, and in his first Tour he really does a number, with tactical intelligence and endurance. He pedals easily, and this is a quality that only champions have.
The last of the list of French candidates to end the fast at the Tour that has lasted since Bernard Hinault in 1985, Kevin is simply a prodigy on the bike, having shown that he can handle himself just about everywhere: from BMX to the track where he has a decent medal collection.
On the run from the start with ten others, the Frenchman goes alone in the last ascent of the San Luca, just under 15 minutes from the finish, losing the polka-dotted Norwegian Abrahamsen, and giving the second success in two stages in this Tour d’Italie: stuff to come back here again next year.
The Tour arrives in Bologna and the traffic police decide to call a strike, perhaps this is why at the top of the already well-defined ranking there is crowding, a real traffic jam.
Four in the lead with the same time: if it’s not unprecedented, we’re close. Tadej Pogacar in yellow is nothing new, as are those behind him in the same time: Evenepoel, Vigegaard and Carapaz in that order.
The Slovenian’s sprint on the second pass of the San Luca, transformed for the occasion into a true open-air Maracanà, is nothing new either, but here the usual Vingegaard remains glued to him. “I’m happy to be back in yellow: I tried to break out the group, but Vingegaard proved he was fine”, commented the Slovenian.
Giulio Ciccone smiles, also returning from four days with Covid, but more than perky in a stage that wasn’t exactly designed for him. The Abruzzo native is good at limiting the damage and returns to the hotel with a tenth place in the general classification, just 21 from the yellow jersey.
Today third stage: from Piacenza
in Turin, 230 kilometers. A stage for sprinters, before crossing the border into France tomorrow, through the Galibier, which reminds us of Pantani’s flight and reminds us that this time we will have no one capable of taking flight.
