One of the most dramatic and closely-fought editions of the Giro d'Italia in recent years came to a thrilling conclusion on Sunday, as the fate of the race changed hands at the last possible moment. With one awesome ride by Simon Yates, and one catastrophic miscalculation from Isaac del Toro, Visma-Lease a Bike went from a podium spot to spectacular overall victory, while UAE Team Emirates-XRG threw away the best part of two weeks' hard work defending the pink jersey.
Stage wins were at a premium, mostly due to Lidl-Trek and their insatiable appetite for success. After Mads Pedersen's heroics in the first week, the team won six of the first 15 stages, leaving all the others to feed on scraps.
Still, many teams found a way to get something out of the race, whether it was persisting with bunch sprints, targeting breakaways, or going for one of the many classifications that are on offer at the Giro.
We take a look at all 23 of the participating teams and weigh up how happy they will be with their race.
Alpecin-Deceuninck - 6 / 10
While not the dominant force in the bunch sprints as they so often are, a victory for Kaden Groves in Napoli extended Alpecin-Deceuninck’s run of winning stages in 12 of the 13 Grand Tours in which they have ever competed.
Arkéa - B&B Hotels - 2 / 10
A very quiet race from Arkéa - B&B Hotels almost turned into a great success when Alessandro Verre was the last surviving rider of the day’s break on stage 20 along with Chris Harper, but the young Italian was dropped by Harper on Colle delle Finestre and had to settle for second-place — one of two placings inside the top 10 the team managed.
Bahrain-Victorious - 5 / 10
Antoni Tiberi was well-placed to challenge for the pink jersey before the mass crash towards the end of stage 11, after which Damiano Caruso led their GC challenge to finish an impressive fifth overall. It was a quiet race for the team, however, with Edoardo Zambanini’s second-place in Matera the only time they came close to a stage win.
Cofidis - 3 / 10
The team was geared towards the sprints, in which Milan Fretin managed a second-place in Napoli, but didn’t feature prominently aside from that. Sylvain Moniquet led the mountains jersey for the first two days to give them some trips to the podium.
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale - 6 / 10
Having talked a big game in anticipation of the bunch sprints, it was a great disappointment that Sam Bennett only managed one finish in the top 10. Instead, it was the breakaways where the team came to life, with the impressive Nicolas Prodhomme triumphing on the penultimate stage of the Alps, and Dries De Bondt’s constant attacking helping him win the Intermediate Sprints classification.
EF Education-EasyPost - 9 / 10
Two years ago EF Education-EasyPost signed Richard Carapaz in the hope that he would make them a force at Grand Tour GC races, and that dream bloomed this year as he blew the race to pieces in the mountains. Even if he wasn’t quite able to become their first Grand Tour winner since Ryder Hesjedal in 2012, third-place overall and a stage win, in addition to Kasper Asgreen’s breakaway win in Nova Gorica, made this an exceptional race for the team.
Groupama-FDJ - 2 / 10
A crash in the first week and consequent hand injury brought an end to David Gaudu’s GC hopes, leaving it up to the less acclaimed names on their roster to animate breakaways. The likes of Rémy Rochas, Enzo Paleni and Lorenzo Germani impressed with their efforts, but couldn’t come close to a stage win.
Ineos Grenadiers - 6 / 10
Living up to their new identity as one of the peloton’s main aggressors and animators, Ineos constantly took the race on with early, ambitious attacks. That helped Egan Bernal finish seventh place overall, a heartwarming return to elite level from the Colombian, while Josh Tarling won them a stage in the first time trial.
Intermarché - Wanty - 2 / 10
Neither sprinter Gerben Thijsen nor climber Louis Meintjes managed to make much of an impression, in what was a largely anonymous Giro for Intermarché - Wanty.
Israel-Premier Tech - 6 / 10
Despite a slow start, Derek Gee got stronger as the race continued to finish fourth overall, proving himself capable of challenging for GC at Grand Tours. Corbin Strong’s second place in the stage three sprint was the closest they came to a stage win.
Jayco-Alula - 8 /10
Without an obvious elite GC man to ride for, the team targeted stage wins instead, and that approach paid dividends. First Luke Plapp came out on top in the breakaway to win stage eight, then Chris Harper rode to glory on Colle delle Finestre to claim what was, arguably, the queen stage of the Giro.
Lidl-Trek - 10 / 10
What a sensational Giro this was for Lidl-Trek. Not only was Mads Pedersen the man of the Giro for the first two weeks, winning four stages, spending five days in pink and running away with the maglia ciclamino, lesser names Dan Hoole and Carlos Verona contributed to their huge total of six stage wins. Even Giulio Ciccone’s unfortunate crash while well positioned on GC couldn’t dampen the jubilant mood.
Movistar - 5 / 10
A quiet but steady ride saw Einer Rubio finish eighth overall, while Orluis Aular was one of the most prominent riders in the sprints, with two third-place and two fourth-place finishes.
Picnic PostNL - 6 / 10
Though there no fairytale farewell for Romain Bardet, who was closed down in the final kilometre of stage 17 by Isaac del Toro, or a top 10 finish for Max Poole, who finished 11th instead, the team’s race was still a success thanks to Casper van Uden’s surprise victory in stage four’s bunch sprint in Lecce.
Team Polti-VisitMalta - 6 / 10
Reliably animating the breakaways, Team Polti-VisitMalta succeeded in getting their sponsors plenty of TV airtime, while Mirco Maestri came close to a stage win when he won the sprint for second place on stage 18 behind lone winner Nico Denz.
Q36.5 - 3 / 10
Though Tom Pidcock was in the mix in some stages, making the top five on a couple of the reduced bunch sprints won by Mads Pedersen, his strategy of riding for GC rather than chasing stage wins was more than questionable, considering that he only managed to finish 16th. Aside from his efforts, Matteo Moschetti’s third-place in Rome was the closest they came to a stage win.
Soudal Quick-Step - 2 / 10
The team’s Giro got off to the worst possible start as their leader, Mikel Landa, crashed out on the very first day, and they struggled to rally after that. Paul Magnier’s Grand Tour debut was more of a learning experience than a breakthrough, with third-place in the Napoli sprint his best finish, which, along with the Pisa time trial in which Ethan Hayter and Mattia Cattaneo were third and fourth respectively, was the only time the team competed for a stage win.
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe - 5 / 10
Nico Denz might have won them a stage, but Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe went into this Giro expecting so much more. Not only did pre-race favourite Primož Roglič’s pink jersey bid fall apart after a crash, deputy leaders Jai Hindley and Dani Martínez were also missing in action, the former crashing out and the latter lacking form; 21-year-old Giulio Pellizzari did step up to finish sixth overall, though.
Tudor Pro Cycling 5 / 10
Expectations were high after Michael Storer’s superb overall victory at the Tour of the Alps prior to the Giro, so much so that his 10th place finish on GC feels a little underwhelming. Neither was Storer ever in the mix for a stage win, though Florian Stork and Maikel Zijlaard came close with second in Asiago and third in Lecce, respectively.
UAE Team Emirates - XRG - 8 / 10
A turbulent rollercoaster of a race will leave the team feeling mixed emotions at the finish. From Juan Ayuso’s statement-making stage win at Tagliacozzo, to the subsequent tensions in team leadership between himself and Del Toro, to Del Toro’s 11-day stint in the pink jersey, ending with him losing it in such exasperating fashion on the penultimate day, the team went through the full gamut of emotions.
Whoever’s call it was for Del Toro not to chase when Simon Yates was disappearing up the road during stage 20 made a fatal call, but once the disappointment of that day fades they should come to recognise Mexican’s second-place finish stage win and white jersey victory as a revelatory success, and exciting sign of things to come.
VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè - 5 / 10
Although they didn’t come as close as their fellow Italian wildcard team Polti-VisitMalta, to winning a stage, VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè were every bit as aggressive, with Manuele Tarozzi especially lively to win both the Breakaway and Red Bull Kilometre classifications.
Visma-Lease a Bike - 10 / 10
After all the frustrations and bad luck of the last year or so, Team Visma-Lease a Bike are well and truly back. Things were already going well before Simon Yates’ astonishing turnaround on Colle delle Finestre to win the pink jersey, after Olav Kooij and Wout van Aert had won stages in the race’s first half, but the way the team nailed their plan of Van Aert working together with Yates to seal overall victory that day was the team operating at their peak level of two seasons ago. Kooij’s final stage win in Rome was the cherry on the cake.
XDS-Astana Team - 7 / 10
Collectively, XDS-Astana exercised a total stranglehold on the King of the Mountains classification, with Lorenzo Fortunato wearing the blue jersey for 18 of the race’s 21 days and winning by a huge margin, and teammate Christian Scaroni mopping up many more points in defence to finish second in the classification. Fortunato repaid the favour to let Scaroni take the win when the two reached the finish of stage 16 together, while Diego Ulissi also got to enjoy a day in the pink jersey.
