Giro d'Italia 2025 Part 2
We went up north to attend the GIOS Raduno (watch for another post on that) but before that, the Giro d'Italia's penultimate stage was too close to miss. We took our Bianchi E-Impulso bikes with us, the idea to get as far up the famous Colle delle Finestre climb as possible to wait for the race to arrive.18.6 kilometres long at an average of 9.1% (height gain: 1694 m), the maximum gradient being 14% is the description and both of us have ridden up it a time or two...but it was a long time ago! We knew we'd need some help especially since Zio Lorenzo was barely two months out of the hospital!
We arrived in Susa and bought some panini and Focaccia di Susa, the famous sweet bread, then started up the climb. This thing gets steep right from the bottom, but Zio remembered it getting a bit easier later...at least in his mind.
It didn't, and soon he was using 100% of the e-bike's power to keep his heart rate under the doctor's limit. It was still plenty hard and made him wonder how he made it back-in-the-day with just his legs? Especially when an hour (and probably almost 10 kilometers) later the e-bike battery was dead. We weren't far from our goal of the unpaved part, but riding (or pushing) an almost 30 lb e-bike uphill with a dead battery seemed pretty stupid, so we found a nice spot with a wall to sit on, unfurled our "W MAGRO" banner and enjoyed our lunch, waiting for the race.
We knew we'd watch replays of the entire stage later so we avoided watching it on a tiny phone screen, instead just waiting like the old days. We'd heard WVA was in the early break and when he came past without any riders from the rival UAE or EF team, Zio began to wonder - and when WVA's teammate Simon Yates went past about 20 seconds ahead of Del Toro and Carapaz, he REALLY began to wonder!
Why were there none of their guys in the break with Wout? Zio remembered the infamous "28 seconds" fiasco from 2005. Race leader Paolo Salvoldelli was dropped on this same climb while Gilberto Simoni looked sure to ride to victory, stealing the maglia rosa on the stage with its finish in Sestriere.
Savoldelli (like Del Toro and Carapaz) didn't have any teammates, but there WERE some Belgians there who seemed very willing to help him chase down the fleeing Simoni. Are you starting to get the picture - if Yates could hook up with Wout, he'd have an armchair ride to victory, as who would help Del Toro and Carapaz? Even if teammates came from behind to help, it would be too little, too late.
Zio remembered how in 2005 Rujano refused to work with Simoni, who had to know Salvodelli was getting help from the Belgians. You might wonder why that was? Let's just say Paolo's team director was also Belgian and leave it at that. Zio also remembers a Giro stage where Nibali's teammate Michele Scarponi did almost the exact same thing as Wout, helping The Shark win the Corsa Rosa. Did nobody at UAE remember this?
So in Simoni's case an audacious move failed while in Yates' it was a roaring success, all because UAE couldn't/wouldn't get someone in that break with Wout. Zio's no fan of the Visma team or Simon Yates (who you might remember lost the maglia rosa on a similar stage over the same climb in 2018?) but he's gotta say BRAVI to the winners!!!!
Isaac Del Toro was let down by his team, pure and simple. The only way he could have won would have been to stay with Yates, fending off all the attacks on Colle delle Finestre by himself. Where were those expensive UAE mountain helpers on this day?
