After a delay, a bus transfer and the inevitable, tiresome polemica that dominated RAI’s television coverage for much of the afternoon, the first Alpine stage of the Giro d’Italia eventually got underway from Le Châble at the foot of the Croix de Coeur. The abridged route promised intensity, but that still couldn’t break the stalemate between maglia rosa Geraint Thomas and Primož Roglič atop the overall standings.
“It was tough, but it didn’t really fully kick off, really,” Thomas said in Crans Montana after he finished alongside Roglič in a sizeable pink jersey group that only splintered within sight of the line. “Our boys controlled the race really well.”
