Well, that was unexpected. Pan-flat stage 15 of this year’s Giro d’Italia literally bore the name of the Lidl-Trek man thought to be its destined victor: Jonathan Milan was the favourite to win, laughably, in Milan. So perfect, so fitting, we chortled. The Italian fastman has had his fair share of bad luck at his home Grand Tour this year, but surely, if there was one stage that was his, it was going to be this. 

But Fredrik Dversnes (Uno-X Mobility) had other plans. Maybe we shouldn’t be so surprised, seeing as the man who fooled us all during what should have been a very straightforward sprint stage is well-versed in out-foxing the favourites and pulling off the impossible. His famed Tirreno-Adriatico moment last year – which saw the Norwegian prevail over Tom Pidcock, Mathieu Van der Poel and Juan Ayuso after fighting for 200 kilometres in the breakaway – called for a repeat, this time on a much bigger stage: 

“I knew I had good opportunities, because I am pretty good at going in breakaways, so this was my big shot,”  Dversnes beamed at the media after the race. “You always think about it on the way, and when we still had two minutes pretty late in the race –  but you still have to think about what to do and what’s important to do.” 

The breakaway set a lightening average pace of over 50 kilometres per hour on stage 15 (Image credit: Zac williams/ SWpix.com)

Dreaming is believing, as they say. This time around it took Dversnes, along with his early breakaway companions Mirco Maestri (Team Polti VisitMalta), Martin Marcellus (Bardiani CSF 7 Saber), and Maestri's teammate Mattia Bais 153 kilometres of pulling turns out front for the quartet to outsmart the rest of the peloton, establishing a gap which hovered around two minutes until the race reached the Milan circuit. The kilometres ticked down, but the time on the clock didn’t budge as sprint teams scrambled to get riders to the front. The tight streets and corners of Milan’s city centre, however, took their toll, and the adjusting and jostling of the bunch only served to put them under more time pressure. Just over three hours after the flag was lifted, Dversnes crossed the line of the third-fastest stage in Giro d’Italia history in first place, with his breakaway buddies in tow.

“I had been joking this Giro that I would trick the peloton on one of these ‘sprint stages’,” said the former Norwegian champion, gesturing two fingers in inverted commas, “so I’m super glad to make it.” 

So are we, Fred, so are we. Everybody loves an underdog – unless you’re Lidl-Trek, of course, whose leader slumped to fourteenth place and is subsequently under the kosh and facing the first winless Grand Tour of his career. While cameras flocked to the Uno-X Mobility crew embracing and cheering just beyond the finish line, sprint teams elsewhere began to scratch their heads, and eventually – inevitably – to point fingers. For Milan’s key domestique, Tim Torn Teutenberg, it was the motorbike pacing that unfairly influenced the race. The German was furious: 

“Everyone who understands cycling knows that it was a bit of a joke today. I don’t know what the mission of the organisers was – they wanted to show how cars and motorbikes can influence a race. This was bullshit.” 

You can see why they might be a little (okay, very) frustrated about the whole thing. Sprint-spoiling stage profiles have been a favourite pick of the race organisers this year, with cobbles and late climbs leaving the likes of Milan with little choice other than to stand and watch while Jhonatan Narváez et al gobble up stage wins like hungry hippos. A forlorn-looking pure sprinter has thus become something of a trademark: today, fastmen Paul Magnier and Dylan Groenewegen were the first of the favourites to arrive from the peloton, finishing fifth and sixth respectively. 

But after stage 15, should the sprint teams really be blaming anyone but themselves? In the first instance, you can see why they might have left the breakaway to their own devices for a bit: Dversnes’s best result so far in this race is 53rd on stage six, and it’s been seven years since second-placed Maestri took his last professional win at a time trial at the Tour of China. 

However, blaming the proximity of race vehicles  – a feature of bike racing since pretty much time immemorial –  seems a little too convenient. For one, the criterium-like nature of the final circuit made it near impossible for cars to keep their distance, while the peloton arguably also had their fair share of horse-powered help.Andreas Leknessund even tried to wave a motorbike away from the peloton in favour of his Uno X teammate up the road. 

As the peloton hurtled through Milan for the 90th time in its history, the names of those forced to pull on the front in today’s Great Chase are a barometer of the strength of the breakaway. Even Lidl-Trek’s GC man Derek Gee-West had a go once his race had been neutralised 16 kilometres from the finish. Sprint teams burned through their leadout men one-by one, until eventually there were none.

With only two flat stages now remaining of this year’s Italian tour, they really needed stage 15 – the one that got away. This was their shot, and they blew it. Meanwhile, the breakaway came, saw and conquered (in) Milan.