It was the longest stage in this year’s Giro d’Italia and, boy, did we feel it. With the threat of rain, mumblings of possible neutralisation of the finish and a technical sprint finish, it felt like quite a cautious stage, with perhaps the crashes over the past few days weighing heavy on the riders’ minds. But nothing was neutralised, there was only a touch of rain and the double zebra-crossings of slippery paint didn’t bring anyone down. The sprint was won by Lotto-Soudal’s Caleb Ewan, after a heroic effort by his team from 50km out to keep him in the running over the cat-climbs. Elia Viviani (Deceuninck-QuickStep) took second, while maglia ciclamino wearer Pascal Ackermann (Bora-hansgrohe) was third.
