Today’s stage at the Giro d’Italia was a painful reminder of how you’re never far away from a game-changing incident at a Grand Tour. Prior to the day, the whole second week had gone by without either a major crash or a single abandonment. The various incidents of the first week, which had seen top GC contenders Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick-Step) and Jai Hindley (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), had become a distant memory, and it seemed the race had settled down, the early stage nerves and messiness tempered.
That all changed in the blink of an eye about 23km from the finish on stage 14. Having recently begun an urban finishing circuit in Nova Gorica, the peloton squeezed into a tight corner onto a cobbled road. It had rained earlier and the cobbles were dangerously wet, particularly given the pace the riders had approached it with in the battle for position. It was clearly a dangerous moment, and unfortunately, a rider fell about 15 riders from the front, taking others with him and holding up even more.
Thus began an intense chase between the front peloton containing the GC contenders who had avoided the incident altogether, and others who, though not having fallen, had been caught out. In the former, Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) was present, once again looking after himself excellently and being in the right place at the right time. He was accompanied by Simon Yates (Visma-Lease a Bike), yet again not putting a foot wrong in his quietly flawless bid for the pink jersey, and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), in the ascendancy since his stage win at Castelnovo ne' Monti three days ago.
Behind, the two men who had started the Giro as outright favourites were forced to chase. Having crashed during the gravel stage and lost significant time that day, Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) was once again on the back foot, forced to limit his losses as he has for much of this race. And with him was Juan Ayuso, obliged not to chase with his UAE teammate Del Toro up the road, but surely anxious about slipping further away on GC. Roglič and Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe did at least have allies to help them chase, as many other teams too had been caught out. Most came in the form of Ineos Grenadiers, whose leader, Egan Bernal, was in the group, in yet another unfortunate blow after his crash during the time trial.
Ultimately, it could have been much worse for these riders. They reached the finish 48 seconds after the pink jersey — a sizable loss, for sure, especially on a flat stage where no GC drama was expected. But nothing fatal. As a result, Ayuso is taken over by Simon Yates to fall to third place, and sees his deficit to teammate Del Toro more than double, from 38 seconds to 1:26. Roglič does manage to retain his fifth-place position on GC, but cedes even more ground to the pink jersey, now falling 2:23 adrift. And Egan Bernal now finds himself 3:38 behind in ninth, only seven seconds ahead of his Ineos teammate Thymen Arensman, who managed to stay in the pink jersey group.
However, other GC men were worse affected. Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) was also held up in the crash, but re-entered the race not in the same group as Roglič, Ayuso and Bernal, but in another one further down. He had ridden an excellent Giro up until now, riding well on the climbs, time trial and gravel and avoiding incident to place himself third on GC, losing just 1:18 to Del Toro. But as the desperate attempts from his Bahrain-Victorious teammates to pace him back into the main chase group failed, he ended up losing 1:44 to the pink jersey group, undoing much of his good work these two weeks. He drops a whole five places to eighth on GC, with 3:02 to make up on the pink jersey.
Yet his wasn’t the worst day endured by one of the overall contenders. The only rider whose GC ambitions were well and truly ended today was Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek). Unlike the others who were merely held up in the crash, the Italian fell heavily and hurt himself when he hit the deck. He took a long time to get going again, and for a time looked set to exit the race altogether. But he bravely and gingerly hobbled his way to the finish, eventually reaching it over a quarter of an hour later, accompanied and consoled by all of his Lidl-Trek teammates.
The plan had been for Ciccone to chase GC, and it had been going well up until today, with him standing high at seventh overall. Now he’ll revert back to his normal strategy of chasing stage wins — that is, if he remains in the race at all. Lidl-Trek reported that he’s visiting the hospital for a check-up before deciding.
The crash’s impact on the GC is clear for all to see, with the overall standings looking completely different from what they were 24 hours ago. But it also had a significant impact on the fate of the stage win. The moment it occurred, Kasper Asgreen (EF Education-EasyPost) was the sole survivor of the four-man break who had escaped early in the day. He still had a lead of one minute over the peloton, but, as famously strong an engine as he has, his chances of making it to the finish still seemed slim at best, with so many sprinter teams fancying their chances and setting the pace to bring him back.
However, with the peloton reduced to such a small number, suddenly it lacked the necessary firepower. Stage favourites Olav Kooij (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) might have made the split, but many of their domestiques hadn’t, leaving them with a lack of riders to make the chase. Visma did most of the work, with Wout van Aert being used up early and even GC man Simon Yates taking over in the final kilometres. But as the kilometres ticked by, the gap between themselves and Asgreen stubbornly failed to come down from about 15 seconds.
Asgreen ultimately held on for the win, his first at the Giro and second at Grand Tour level, and a triumphant comeback for a rider who has endured a difficult time since his transfer to EF Education-EasyPost. On a day when the familiar demon of crashes has left so many riders either cursing their luck or licking their wounds, at least one man will be over the moon.
