Part Two of our Giro d’Italia 2022 A to Z kicks off with Now or Never – riders who saw their chance and took it! And we finish up with Zero stage wins … teams who unfortunately didn’t come away with victory. We also have tears, tiny fans, one very quixotic rider and the best cycling photographers in the world.
Stage 19 of the Giro d’Italia saw Koen Bouwman take win number two and secure the maglia azzura from a breakaway of five riders. While the final corner left a lot to be desired, the flying Dutchman was first into it and first over the line. QuickStep-AlphaVinyl’s Mauro Schmid took a disappointed second, with Alessandro Tonelli (Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè) rounding out the podium. Behind the break, not even a trip into Slovenia, a proper summit finish nor a perplexing BORA-hansgrohe strategy could break the GC stalemate. Everything remains the same in the fight for pink as we go into the high mountains on stage 20.
After yesterday’s bonkers day, the GC contenders took it easy on Stage 15 of the 2022 Giro d’Italia and let a big break go. In that break was Trek-Segafredo’s Giulio Ciccone, who had diamonds in his legs. Racing with head and heart, he attacked on the steepest part of the final climb to take an emotional solo victory. Second on the stage was Bahrain’s Santiago Buitrago and third was Antonio Pedrero (Movistar). Only the KOM jersey changes shoulders tonight, back to Jumbo’s Koen Bouwman and Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) hustles his way back into the top ten.