Stage 20 of the Giro d’Italia didn’t deliver any GC fireworks but we were treated to a win for Bahrain-Victorious’s Damiano Caruso. The man who came to support Mikel Landa swapped his bridesmaid’s dress for a full bridal gown (with bouquet!) and soloed to victory, cementing his podium place in the process. Some huge turns from Ineos’s super-domestiques ensured that Egan Bernal was safe and sound. It’s all but certain he’ll be on the top step of the podium when the Giro finishes tomorrow.
Executive Summary
Lot’s happened but very little changed.
That’s kinda all you need to know about this stage.
For all the pre-race talk, the QuickStep Wolfpack were placid and the Bike Exchange challenge was flaccid. If it weren’t for Caruso going up the road, Egan Bernal (Ineos) would have had nothing to worry about at all.
The Colombian goes into the final time trial with a 1’59 lead over second-placed Caruso and well over three minutes on Simon PHILIP Yates (Bike Exchange). Barring disaster, Bernal will take his second grand tour win in Milan tomorrow. But …
Look it’s the invisible man!
It’s been a running joke for the past week, Damiano Caruso in the podium places of the Giro without being seen once. Genuinely I hadn’t a clue how he got there. I’ve never seen him attack, I can’t even remember seeing him in the same camera shot at Bernal. But, by extreme stealth, he found his way up to second place.
Not many of us would have been able to pick Damiano Caruso out of a line up before this Giro.
So, we've made a handy .gif so you know what he looks like with out his helmet on.
*CSI My (tired) Hammies pic.twitter.com/Y4TW0mrBiU
— The Cycle Collective (@cyclecollective) May 29, 2021
Today we saw him – lots of him! Spurred on by his mighty teammate Pello Bilbao, he followed Romain Bardet and his DSM musketeers as they put in a mammoth attack to make the most of the long descent of the first climb. That attack produced a 40-second gap on the maglia rosa group before the penultimate climb of the day.
The Bahrain-Bardet-Breakway group whittled itself down until we were left with just Bilbao, Caruso and Bardet. When Bilbao had had enough his teammate (no stranger to doing the hard graft for others) gave him a rather touching pat on the back. [we loved that – ed]. It was then just Bardet and Caruso on the final climb, with no one in the tiny maglia rosa group able to attack the Martinez/Bernal duo on the front.
It's up to Caruso and Bardet now – I hope Caruso gives Bilbao a lovely watch at the end of this #Giro2021 pic.twitter.com/5YKRlHroCC
— VeloVoices (@VeloVoices) May 29, 2021
Caruso & Bardet are my new fave unexpected pairing. #CouchPeloton #Giro pic.twitter.com/9Y6Qh9BKbi
— Belinda (@reallyspoketome) May 29, 2021
Bardet cracked with 2kms to go and even though Martinez was bringing the gap down with every hairpin, Caruso kept his nerve – and his legs – and went under the flamme rouge with 20sec in hand. By this point, Bernal took off on his own, to claim second.
Absolutely love that Caruso is going for it. Never a winner, always a domestique, now at the front of the final climb of the Giro sitting 2nd on GC. What a moment in his career. #Giro
— Neal Rogers (@nealrogers) May 29, 2021
It’s been a long time coming
The Italian has been a professional rider since 2009 but has never won a world tour race. His palmares shows a good few second places but no top steps. It’s not surprising, he’s been a domestique all his professional life. He’s looked after the likes of Richie Porte, Ivan Basso and Peter Sagan. That’s a textbook definition of “thankless task” and “all the work, none of the glory”.
Caruso came to this Giro to shepherd Mikel Landa around but has ended up winning a stage and has one foot on the final podium. Funny how life turns out.
🎙️ @CarusoDamiano: "I thought about a thousand things in the last meters before the finish line, all my sacrifices, my training, and all the work done by my teammates."
Powered by @eolo_it #Giro pic.twitter.com/qjWVcigBFr
— Giro d'Italia (@giroditalia) May 29, 2021
Man the amount of feel-good storylines in this Giro is off-the-charts.
— Peter Flax (@Pflax1) May 29, 2021
Seems very typical of Landa's career to crash out early and one of his domestiques go on to outperform his best-ever Grand Tour performance. 😳
— Freddie Shires (@fshires) May 29, 2021
When life gives you lemons
So the racing wasn’t as ferocious as we hoped? No worries, there are always things to look at along the roadside. No tractors in the mountains, but there were men in lederhosen doing some synchronised running.
72km to go … 4.14 for the break. Men in lederhosen by the road side #Giro2021 pic.twitter.com/ZQZpdZjwVY
— VeloVoices (@VeloVoices) May 29, 2021
Wow pic.twitter.com/DsWO8Ii93f
— VeloVoices (@VeloVoices) May 29, 2021
[I’m putting in this picture of Larry Warbasse because … he’s smiling and we love him – ed]
😍 #Giro pic.twitter.com/5d3RAdxXJG
— Issie 💙 (@IssieAtch) May 29, 2021
It's all happening on the mountain – on the road and on the side of the road. In onesies … pic.twitter.com/OOrgDOLQsF
— VeloVoices (@VeloVoices) May 29, 2021
The final word
Normally this section is reserved for a witty aside or a deeper nugget… today I’m giving it to THE star of the show
"I'm the happiest man on this earth"
🙌🙌🙌#RideAsOne #Giro
📸 @bettiniphoto pic.twitter.com/WboCwNE3vf
— Team Bahrain Victorious (@BHRVictorious) May 29, 2021
Results
Stage 20 Top 5
1 Damiano Caruso (Bahrain-Actually Victorious) 4:27:53
2 Egan Bernal (Ineos-Domestiques-R-Us) +0:24
3 Daniel Martinez (Ineos-SeeAbove) +0:35
4 Romain Bardet (Team BDSM) same time
5 Joao Almeida (Deceuninck-WrongHorse) +0:41
GC Top 10
🇨🇴 @Eganbernal retains the Maglia Rosa!
📊 The full rankings 👉 https://t.co/iaDu5jSLlH🇨🇴 @Eganbernal difende la Maglia Rosa
📊 Tutte la classifiche 👉 https://t.co/iaDu5jSLlH#Giro pic.twitter.com/GHvyOCmadM— Giro d'Italia (@giroditalia) May 29, 2021
1 Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) 85:41:47
2 Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) +1:59
3 Simon Yates (Team BikeExchange) +3:23
4 Aleksandr Vlasov (Astana-Premier Tech) +7:07
5 Romain Bardet (Team DSM) +7:48
6 Daniel Martinez (Ineos Grenadiers) +7:56
5 Hugh Carthy (EF Education-Nippo) +8:22
8 João Almeida (Deceuninck-QuickStep) +8:50
9 Tobias Foss (Jumbo-Visma) +12:39
10 Dan Martin (Israel Start Up Nation) +16:48
All the jerseys
Leader’s jersey Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers)
Points jersey Peter Sagan (BORA-hansgrohe)
King of the Mountains Geoffrey Bouchard (Ag2r Citroen)
Best Young Rider Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers)
For the full race review, go to cyclingnews
Go here for the official Giro website