Stage 20 saw the Giro d’Italia take on the final mountains of the race, with a double passage of the Monte Grappa climb in the final 100 kilometres of the day. Averaging eight percent in gradient for 18 kilometres, it was arguably the hardest climb of the whole Giro d’Italia, with fireworks expected on the ascent.
Already from the start of the stage the Maglia Rosa Poagacar and his team made it clear they wanted to fight for the stage, keeping the break relatively close and then ramping up the speed on the climb. After good positioning work and support from the rest of Team dsm-firmenich PostNL, Romain Bardet was in the reduced peloton over the top of the first ascent, and was in the battle as they began the second ascent. However, a big increase in pace at the front of the peloton saw Bardet unfortunately suffer, and he had to let go of the wheels. Nevertheless, he showed brilliant fighting spirit and rode the last 40 kilometres of the stage alone, pushing where he could and fighting all the way to the line in Bassano del Grappa. His efforts would see him save a top ten overall, meaning he and the team head to Rome tomorrow sat ninth place on GC.
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach Matt Winston expressed: “Romain fought all the way to the line to save a top ten on GC, and he can be proud that he kept going all the way to the line. It’s not what we had hoped for today, but that’s cycling, you can have bad days at times. We’ve had a bit of an up and down race over the course of the three weeks I would say. We’ve had some really good days and some stages where we’ve suffered a little bit; whether that be through illness or injury. Now we have to regather, travel to Rome, and come out fighting one last time on stage 21 where we’ll go for it in the sprint.”
