From Thomas to Cavendish: Here’s Who Impressed Us at the Giro d’Italia

The 106th Giro d’Italia wrapped up on Sunday in Rome with Slovenia’s Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) taking home the maglia rosa (“pink jersey”) as the overall winner of the Italian grand tour.

Roglič and his Jumbo-Visma team rode a calculated race, letting other riders and teams do the lionshare of the work in defending the pink jersey, only taking it for themselves at the end of Stage 20, an 18.6km mountain time trial in which the Slovenian overcame a brief mechanical to win the stage by enough time over Great Britain’s Geraint Thomas (INEOS Grenadiers) to the maglia rosa once and for all. In the end, Roglič beat Thomas by just 14 seconds–which is now tied for the ninth-closest winning margin in grand tour history–and Portugal’s João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) by 1:15.

For Thomas–who had worn the pink jersey for eight days overall–the defeat was devastating. But for Roglič–who has won three Tours of Spain but lost the Tour de France in similar fashion back in 2020–the win affirmed the 33-year-old’s status as one of the greatest stage racers of the last decade. He’s won four grand tours, finished on the podium twice, and won 16 stages. And after starting the sport later in his athletic career (he was a world class ski jumper before becoming a cyclist), he likely has another year or two to add more wins to his grand tour resume–starting with trying for a fourth Tour of Spain later this summer.

But Roglič wasn’t the Giro’s only winner. Here’s a look at who else left Rome feeling good about their performance.

Geraint Thomas (INEOS Grenadiers)

Yes, Thomas lost the race in dramatic fashion on the Giro’s penultimate day, but as he said himself in a tweet following the stage, he would have happily accepted this result a few months ago. The 2018 Tour de France champion, Thomas has now finished on the podium in two grand tours in the last year (he took third at last summer’s Tour de France), and at a time when the world’s best riders are getting younger, to see a 37-year-old riding so well so late in his career is a true anomaly. Thomas is now the second-best grand tour rider in British history: behind Chris Froome–who won seven grand tours and stood on the podium in four more–but ahead of Bradley Wiggins–who won the 2012 Tour de France but never came close to the podium in any other 3-week stage race. Now Thomas gets a well-deserved rest before heading to the Tour of Spain in August to try and complete a hat trick of grand tour podium finishes.

João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates)

Almeida’s grand tour progression continued this year, with the 24-year-old’s first podium finish, a mountain stage victory (atop Monte Bondone on Stage 16), and the maglia bianca (“white jersey”) as the Giro’s Best Young Rider. Fourth in 2020 and sixth in 2021, Almedia has steadily improved with each Giro participation, making him a true contender for the maglia rosa in 2024. We were most impressed with Almedia’s tenacity. We wondered after the second week if he would settle for third, racing cautiously so as not to lose a chance at his best-ever result. But he raced to win, blowing the Giro apart on his way to winning Stage 16 and sending a message to Thomas and Roglič that he wasn’t going down without a fight. Yes, he lost time the next day and ultimately “settled” for third, but he did so in a manner that indicates a grand tour victory is certainly within his future.

Jonathan Milan (Bahrain-Victorious)

Italy’s Jonathan Milan (Bahrain-Victorious) won the maglia ciclamino (“cyclamen jersey”) as the winner of the Giro’s Points Classification. The 22-year-old sprinted to victory on Stage 2 in San Salvo to take the jersey and then held tough throughout the rest of the race, finishing second four times and never letting go of his lead. It’s been a long time since Italian fans have had a pure field sprinter to root for, and in Milan they might have something special. His victory in the competition capped another successful Giro for Bahrain-Victorious, who also went home with a mountain stage victory for Colombia’s Santiago Buitrago (Stage 19) and a fourth-place overall finish for Italy’s Damiano Caruso.

Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ)

Granted, France’s Thibaut Pinot made more headlines for his breakaway antics–and his Twitter spat with EF Education-EasyPost’ General Manager, Jonathan Vaughters–but the 33-year-old ended his final Giro d’Italia (he’s retiring at the end of the season) in fifth-place overall and wearing the maglia azzurra (“blue jersey”) as the winner of the Giro’s King of the Mountains Classification. We suspect that Pinot would have traded one of those results for a stage victory, but his aggressive tactics and his return to form bode well for this summer’s Tour de France, where all eyes will be on the Frenchman as he attempts to end his Tour de France career on a high note.

Derek Gee (Israel-PremierTech)

There was not a more exciting rider than Canada’s Derek Gee in this year’s Giro. The press and fans certainly didn’t think so, as the 25-year-old was named the Giro’s Most Aggressive Rider, which makes perfect sense considering that the man from Ottawa–riding in his first grand tour–animated the race from start to finish. He spent more than 1,000km on the attack, finished second four times, fourth twice, and was the runner-up in the Giro’s Points and King of the Mountains competitions. We’re dying to see Gee tackle the Tour de France this summer, and we’re keeping our fingers crossed that the team selects him to start the race.

Mark Cavendish (Astana)

For much of the Giro, Great Britain’s Mark Cavendish (Astana) looked a step behind the competition, a fact that didn’t bode well for his chances of breaking the record for the most stage wins in Tour de France history this July (he’s currently tied with Eddy Merckx at 34).

But the Manx Missile began the Giro’s final week with a press conference on the second Rest Day in which he announced he was retiring at the end of the season, making this the last Giro of his career. Well, maybe the weight of his pending announcement was weighing him down during the first two weeks, because Cavendish survived the Giro’s mountainous final week, holding on for one more chance to end his Giro career with a stage victory. Well, the moment came at the end of Stage 21, when Cavendish–helped in no small part by Thomas himself–sprinted to the 17th and final Giro stage victory of his career.

Now Cavendish heads to the Tour confident in his form–which is crucial for a rider like Cavendish–and perhaps buoyed in the knowledge that even his competitors seem to be rooting for him. If the 38-year-old (he celebrated his birthday during the Giro) enters the final stage winless, will he receive similar support from his “friends” on the Champs-Élysées? We can’t wait to see!

SRAM

Jumbo-Visma switched from riding Shimano to SRAM groupsets this past off-season, a huge move considering the Dutch squad has been supported by Shimano for decades–and won last year’s Tour de France (and three Tours of Spain) on the Japanese company’s components. So you can imagine how SRAM’s product managers and marketing team must have felt as they watched Roglič–just as we learned he was gaining time on Thomas–drop his chain on the steep climb up Monte Lussari at the end of Stage 20.

Luckily, Roglič quickly put the chain back onto his single chainring and–with a little help from a friend–went on to win the stage and the Giro, giving SRAM it’s first grand tour victory since 2014. And with Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard looking like he’s on track to defend his Tour de France title in July, the company could go 2-for-2.

The Giro’s Organizers

After two weeks of bad weather, crashes, and riders testing positive for COVID-19 (including Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel, who won two stages and led the race heading into the first Rest Day), things weren’t looking good, the RCS Group the company who organizes the Giro d’Italia and several of the sport’s other major events. To make matters worse, Thomas and Roglič turned the Giro into more of a game of chess than a boxing match, trading seconds with one another via a series of calculated moves as opposed to launching huge attacks to try and blow the race apart.

But the third week brought better weather and lots (and lots) of mountains (which is partly to blame for the initial stalemate at the top of the General Classification), and the result was absolutely stunning. But the Giro’s best and most dramatic stage was saved for its penultimate day: a 18.6K time trial that started out flat, but ended with a super-steep climb to the Sanctuary atop Monte Lussari. The stage had it all: forced bike changes, motorcycle support vehicles, gondola rides back down the mountain, but most importantly, a dramatic outcome. The result completely overshadowed the rain-soaked, crash-riddled, Covid-impacted first two weeks of the race, leaving us all with memories of the Giro as it should be: incredibly beautiful, insanely challenging, and breath-takingly epic.

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