A new French star, Jonas Vingegaard shows his mettle, and a huge crash ends race for some – Five things we learned from the Giro d'Italia's opening weekend
The Grande Partenza in Bulgaria was not without incident to say the least, leaving us with plenty to think on
The first Grand Tour of the year has been a long time coming and now it is finally here it has been as eventful as ever. The Giro d'Italia has arrived. New stars have been crowned. Hot favourites have bared their teeth and their rivals have responded. And, unfortunately, there have also been incidents that both fans and riders would rather forget.
So far we have enjoyed the three stages of the Bulgarian Grande Partenza, with a Monday rest day followed by the resumption of proceedings back in Italy on Tuesday.
Magnier: a new French 'Paul' to conjure with
With the hype and the wins produced by Paul Seixas this year have come countless headlines referencing the success of a 'young French rider'. Seixas's countryman and namesake Paul Magnier must have been biding his time until the Giro, waiting to get a piece of the action. And he has done so with aplomb, having worn the first maglia rosa of the race and taking a brace of stages with it. He now leads the pints classification, ahead of some of the luminaries of the sprinting world, like Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek).
Magnier has won races before, but never at this level. After his second stage victory in Sofia, on Sunday's third stage, Magnier seemed bemused and happy in equal measure. "I have to say I feel really good and I beat the best sprinters in the world, so I will try to enjoy this moment and keep going like this with the team," he said.
It's unlikely we've seen the last of him in this race.
Adam Yates out as UAE Team Emirates-XRG woes continue
With the loss of Joāo Almeida and Richard Carapaz from the start list even before the race had begun, the roll of serious contenders for Jonas Vingegaard had been decimated before the action had started.
Following a devastating crash involving multiple riders on stage two, the list has been reduced even further with the retirement of Almeida's stablemate, Adam Yates. The Briton, who had taken over from Almeida as UAE Team Emirates-XRG's main GC hope, limped to the finish but showed "delayed concussive symptoms" according to the team, and did not start the next day.
Yates's retirement wasn't the last of UAE Team Emirates-XRG's woes – Jay Vine also retired with a broken elbow following the same crash, and Marc Soler suffered a pelvic fracture.
Jonas Vingegaard bares his teeth
Lacking any major climbs or time trials, the Grande Partenza in Bulgaria was not one for the GC contenders. Nevertheless that did not stop hot favourite Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) from showing off some fine condition and asserting his dominance on stage two.
His attack on the final climb of the day – a cat-three up to Lyaskovets Monastery, not far from the finish – may have been at least in part an exercise in self-preservation on damp roads that had already claimed multiple crash victims and were clearly slippery. Riding out front alone on a descent is, after all, safer than being caught up in the wheels.
However, Vingegaard ended up taking his main rival Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) with him, as well as on-form Lennert van Eetvelt (Lotto-Intermarche), on near-race-winning move that was only caught in sight of the line. The Dane is clearly in form and ready to race.
Historic victory for Thomas Silva
The modern Giro d'Italia has diligently made itself one of the most cosmopolitan of stage races, with starts in Hungary, Albania and even Israel in recent years, as well as this season's Bulgaria. So the race will surely be pleased to add a brand new nationality to the list of riders who have won one of its stages.
Twenty-four-year-old Thomas Silva of Uruguay declared himself "speechless" after winning stage two. The XDS-Astana rider won the uphill sprint in Veliko Tarnovo at the end of what was probably the most memorable day so far – for both positive and negative reasons.
Team staff's 1,000km challenge
Giro d'Italia organiser RCS did rather well out of the Bulgaria Grande Partenza, having charged a reported €12.5 million fee, according to our colleagues at Cyclingnews. Likewise, Bulgaria tourism is probably set to enjoy a boost too. But what of riders and, especially, staff, as they make a major transfer back to Italy to continue the race.
The riders will fly, as you might expect. But most of the staff will be driving 1,000km from Sofia back to Cantanzaro in readiness for stage four on Tuesday. Not just that though. As reported in Cyclingnews, the riders will be expecting to go for their usual rest day spin and will require their bikes and equipment to be available for that at some point on Monday. That's 1,000km of driving in 24 hours – a feat that rivals what the riders do on their bikes each day.
