Blazin’ Saddles: 7 Truths from the second phase of the Giro d’Italia

Published 16/05/2016 at 11:58 GMT

With Gianluca Brambilla the surprise race leader going into the second rest day, the 99th edition of La Corsa Rosa has featured more twists and turns than a spaghetti junction.

Gianluca Brambilla

Image credit: Imago

Crashes, withdrawals, chronic collapses on steep gravel tracks – this Giro has come into its own since the three-day Grande Partenza in the Netherlands. And after a Dutchman and a German traded the lead, the famous maglia rosa has found itself a new home with an Italian who doggedly refuses to have his bubble burst.

As the Tuscan strade bianche dust settles, let's take a look back as some stand-out talking points from the race since it touched down in the toe of Italy.

Evergreen Greipel is still the toast of Germany

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André Greipel sprints to win stage seven

Image credit: AFP

Who would have thought when Andre Greipel was forced out of the formidable HTC team by his old bete noir, the then-indomitable Mark Cavendish, that the Gorilla would eventually eclipse the Manxman's achievements and prove the more durable and dependable of the two?

Three years Cav's senior, Greipel may have not won as many Tour de France stages or monuments as the Dimension Data sprinter, but his stage five win in Benevento kept up the German veteran's record of notching a scalp in each of the 11 Grand Tours he has ridden since the Giro in 2008.

Greipel's second win in Foligno two days later took him above Marcel Kittel's tally of four Giro stage wins and made him the – forgive the appalling word – winningest German rider in Giro history. Meanwhile, he did it while his compatriot was soft-pedalling home after picking up a puncture six kilometres from the future.

Andre Greipel snatches win in Stage 7

Bad luck, most would say. But it should be added that Kittel's flat was very convenient for a man who had lost his sparkle as soon as the race hit Italian shores. Symbolically, Greipel wrested the red jersey from Kittel's shoulders that night. A day later, Kittel had left the race completely having seemingly lost the stomach for the fight.

It's amazing how much can change in just a few days. In the Netherlands, Kittel seemed invincible. But the Italian stages have shown him up – at worst for a flat-track bully who can't take it when things don't go his way, and at best, a psychologically brittle rider with a tendency to fall into the one-trick-pony category. There's certainly a good reason why Kittel has only ever ridden one major classic in his career.

Etixx-QuickStep's spring nightmare all but forgotten

Gianluca Brambilla in pink

Image credit: AFP

The Belgian team have experienced another rotten classics campaign but they're shaping up nicely as a stage race outfit to be reckoned with. As things stand they have won a third of all stages and occupy the top two spots on GC while two of their riders have worn pink. Not bad for a team that are meant to win more on the cobbles than the Grand Tours.

While Kittel has tailed off to the point of disappearing entirely in Italy, his absence has opened the doors to others. Matteo Trentin finished sixth in Foligno the day Kittel got a flat – not bad for a plan B. The versatile Italian then featured heavily in the break in stage eight alongside Gianluca Brambilla on the day the latter soloed to glory in Arezzo.

Make no mistake – Brambilla's win over the Tuscan strade bianche was no fluke. The 28-year-old has had a strong spring and was just 300 metres away from winning over the famous dirt roads of the area in March's Strade Bianche – eventually being pipped by Fabian Cancellara and team-mate Zdenek Stybar on the final ramp into Siena.

Brambilla: It’s difficult to believe I have won

Since then Brambilla had targeted stage eight to Arezzo as his opportunity to set the record straight – and he did that in style, not only winning the stage but taking the first leader's jersey of his career. How things have changed since Brambilla was kicked out the 2014 Vuelta for swinging puches at Tinkoff's Ivan Rovny...

To further accentuate Etixx's fine strength in depth, had Brambilla not been rewarded for his brave time trial in Chianti with an unexpected continuation of his stint in pink, then the race lead would have been kept in the family, so to speak, thanks to the consistency of Bob Jungels since the start of the race. The Luxembourg national champion is in the white jersey as the best young rider – but he's but a slender second from being in pink too.

Dumoulin was right to play down his GC chances

Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) - Giro d'Italia 2016

Image credit: AFP

The day before he cracked spectacularly on the uphill gravel track of the Alpe di Poti, Tom Dumoulin had his intentions questioned by wily Spaniard Alejandro Valverde, who claimed the Dutchman had tried to "mislead the enemy" with his claims that he was more interested in winning the time trials than performing well on GC.

To be fair to Valverde, even Dumoulin seemed a bit taken in by his own apparently indomitable form, the 25 year-old suggesting that he would go on the offensive once again on the decisive climb ahead of the Arezzo finale on Saturday. Instead, he pedalled squares and was dropped by even the most ordinary of journeymen in an echo of his self-destructive ride in the penultimate stage of the Vuelta last September.

So perhaps Dumoulin was right to shield attention from himself by claiming he was not as strong as everyone thought. Perhaps, too, he got caught up in his own bandwagon by believing the contrary. Seeing how he suffered on the Alpe di Poti, he'll surely struggle with the series of 2000m+ climbs that pepper the final week of this race – especially if, as he says, he's done no altitude training this winter.

Whatever happens, mind, Dumoulin has certainly endeared himself to the media and fans with his statesman like stint in pink – talking with authority, clarity, humour and humility. Those he didn't win over by joking about Nippo-Vini Fantini's propensity to miss the break – to the extent that he offered to push Damiano Cunego into the break the next day – would have been tickled by the revelation Lotto Soudal's Tim Wellens made, namely that his friend Dumoulin has encouraged his attack on the day he won at Roccaraso.

Zakarin channels Spurs as he fluffs his lines

During the sodden time trial through the vineyards of Chianti the final games of the English Premier League were being played. With the title already won by Leicester City and the three relegated teams already decided, the main unanswered question was whether or not Tottenham Hotspur, in their best season for yonks, would finish above Arsenal, in their worst season for just as long.

And despite having pushed Leicester most of the way for the title, Spurs still managed the unfathomable by being pipped by their north London rivals to the coveted second place trophy. All they needed was a draw – and they ended up losing 5-1 to already relegated Newcastle, who had been reduced to 10 men.

Brambilla holds onto pink jersey after stage 9 time trial

Ilnur Zakarin had pretty much the same kind of day. Having ridden the first half of the time trial course with speed and conviction, the Russian looked odds-on to take the maglia rosa from Brambilla's shoulders. All he needed was to complete the TT without any drama. But instead he did the pedalling equivalent of conceding five goals.

First he punctured. Then he crashed while trying to make up time, requiring a second bike change in less than 10 minutes. Then he did what – to be fair – many others had done on the final bend and slipped on the white paint of a disabled car parking bay, falling rather nastily on the same open wounds he picked up moments earlier. To add insult to injury, his chain then got wedged between pedal and bottom bracket.

Zakarin – who had until then channelled his retired compatriot Denis Menchov in being the new Silent Assassin of the peloton – ended up almost four minutes down on the winner, Primoz Roglic. Instead, he channelled Menchov by crashing on the home straight of a key Giro time trial – albeit without the pink on his shoulders.

Still, his incident-packed effort was still better than Rigoberto Uran's – and the Colombian only crashed and changed bikes the once.

Nibali, Valverde and Landa still set for a three-horse race

Italy's cyclist Vincenzo Nibali (R) rides during the sixth stage, a 157km ride from Ponte to Roccaraso, during the 99th Giro d'Italia, Tour of Italy, on May 12, 2016

Image credit: AFP

They may currently be in fifth, sixth and eighth without exactly setting the world alight, but there's little looking beyond the Big Three for the final podium in Turin.

Nibali has been solid if unspectacular, clearly riding into form ahead of the business end of the race. Sure, he and his team made a bungle of that ramshackle attack en route to Roccarosa, but if all mistakes could be punished with such a paltry time slap then Nibali would be happy to make them more frequently. The Shark has yet to bite, but the jaws are very much primed.

As for Valverde, he has been quietly excellent in his debut Giro – hardly putting a foot wrong and even setting things alight with his series of attacks on the Alpe di Poti. He'll only get better in the high mountains.

And finally, Landa. For someone who has been dropped and distanced on some of the early climbs, he's recovered superbly. Plus his promising time trial means he's less than 30 seconds behind his big rivals at this point – beyond his wildest dreams before the race.

Hats off to the underdogs

While it's hard looking beyond the above for the podium, the likes of Andrey Amador and Steven Kruijswijk are ready to pounce should the A list come a cropper. Besides his wobble on the Roccaraso climb, when he dropped out of the top 10, Amador has been in stellar form en route to occupying the third spot on the standings. A pink jersey could well be in the offing on Tuesday.

As for Kruijswijk, the serious Dutchman has been, well, very serious – finishing solidly every day and riding himself into a strong fourth position on GC. Seventh last year, the 28 year-old will be aiming higher this year – and so he should.

While we're talking underdogs, Kruijswijk's LottoNL-Jumbo team-mate Roglic deserves special mention for winning the Chanti ITT. Sure, the Slovenian former ski jumper benefited from riding in dry conditions; and sure, he told a little fib when boasting about never having ridden a time trial longer than 10 kilometres (he rode an 18km ITT in the Algarve back in February).

But Roglic has been one of the surprise stars of the Giro – and it was a deserved win for a rider who missed out on the maglia rosa by one-hundredth of a second on his maiden Grand Tour appearance back in Apeldoorn.

Enough for the home fans to shout about

Tour of Italy : Gianluca Brambilla's celebration

Image credit: Eurosport

The last time the home nation had less than two stage wins from the first nine of the Giro was back in 2010 when the opening rest day was followed by a flurry of six victories as Ivan Basso went on to secure the overall title in Verona.

Gianluca Brambilla added to Diego Ulissi's earlier stage scalp in some style to keep that run going on the weekend – and by successfully defending the maglia rosa in Chianti he became the first Italian since Vincenzo Nibali in 2013 to lead the Giro for consecutive days.

Brambilla's win ahead of Matteo Montaguti and Moreno Moser meant three Italians finished on the podium, while a fourth, Alessandro De Marchi, finished fifth. It's fair to say that now the race is back on home soil, the Italians are waking up and enjoying themselves (except the disappointing Elia Viviani of Team Sky, who left the race after finishing outside the time limit on Saturday).

That said, you have to go back quite a while to see a top 10 of a Giro time trial devoid of an Italian – but they'll blame that one on the rain...

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