Giro d'Italia 2020 - In the Giro, nothing goes to plan

When Geraint Thomas and Simon Yates delivered the two best TT performances of the general classification contenders, that only served to confirm what we thought we knew; the maglia rosa was coming home with a Brit.

Now, all that seems like a different race entirely.

Young guns

The biggest winner of the entire day, saving the actual winner Jonathan Caicedo (EF Pro Cycling), was Team Sunweb’s Wilco Kelderman. As the peloton began to fragment through lack of leadership like an eery microcosm of the United Kingdom, the Dutchman powered his way clear from the group and was never seen again.

His initial surge was excoriating and then, while cameras lingered on Nibali and Fuglsang tearing strips off each other and Caicedo crossing the line, Kelderman put 12 seconds into the ‘heads of state’ behind. If he can chip, chip, chip away like that for a week or so and perform to his expected level in the time trials, he should be a major factor now in the race for pink

His effort puts him fourth on GC and there’s only one name ahead of him with serious general classification aims, Joao Almeida.

Quite how serious the Deceuninck–Quick-Step rider’s designs on pink are, we’ll discover in the coming days. The Portuguese was signed by the Belgian team as vital support for their intended leader, Remco Evenepoel. So far he seems to be making a good fist of filling Remco’s old footie boots having now worn the white, pink and ciclamino jerseys – albeit the latter was only in Filippo Ganna’s stead.

Also performing well today for the men in blue and white were Fausto Masnada and James Knox. They placed three riders in the top 22 on the stage, more than any other squad, taking the lead of the team competition in the process.

The old guard

The quartet of experienced campaigners that came across the line together behind Kelderman probably expected to spend the next two-and-a-half weeks pooling their efforts to try and take on the might of Mitchelton-Scott and Ineos.

Now they face the entirely different prospect of battling one another head-on for the race lead. Vincenzo Nibali and Jakob Fuglsang looked to be in the best shape of the four, but Domenico Pozzovivo was also close to his limpet-like best. The NTT Pro Cycling leader has an incredible ability to climb the GC without ever actually attacking.

Rafal Majka’s team made a lot of the early running on Etna, but Matteo Fabbro looked to be the strongest Bora-Hansgrohe rider in the race after repeatedly riding away from the rest of the peloton. Majka hung tough with Nibali and Fuglsang but it would be some comeback if he makes it to the podium of the Giro after so many years in the wilderness.

If Jonathan Castroviejo hadn’t already been down in 145th when we started this morning, he might have been in with a shot of contending for a GC top ten in Thomas’ stead. His form dipped quite a bit in the middle of the Tour de France, but today as he attacked from the group of favourites, only to be caught by and finish with them, he looked like the rider we saw at the Tour de L’Ain and Dauphine earlier this year. As it stands he’s still six minutes off the pace and possibly wondering whether he might’ve become the next Richard Carapaz.

Honestly, who knows? This race is anyone’s at this point and Yates at 3’46” isn’t totally out of it yet.

To paraphrase an old saying in the most contemporary of ways, if you want to make 2020 laugh, tell it your plans.