There’s something about the Giro d’Italia which always seems to supply chaos, in the original Greek sense of there being a void to be filled. There’s a bit of disorder thrown in, too it’s unpredictable, and there is also rarely one rider or team in charge. Maybe it’s the time of year, maybe it’s the terrain, or maybe it’s the riders that turn up, but it’s different to other Grand Tours. While the Tour de France is so important that it often goes to plan, its Italian cousin offers something wilder. Part of the reason, too, obviously, is that neither Tadej Pogačar or Jonas Vingegaard is here, nor Remco Evenepoel, and the race is much more open as a result.
This year’s Giro was supposed to be a straight shootout between Primož Roglič of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, and UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s Juan Ayuso. The pair had traded blows at the Volta a Catalunya, and it was widely believed that it would, on form, be these two riders vying for the pink jersey. 16 stages into the race, and neither will win the race. Roglič, as he seems to do often, has crashed out of the race, while Ayuso has lost enough time - 13:27 - to mean he’s out of contention.
