With three more retirements, this Thursday during the 12th stage, this Giro, which has already seen forty riders dismount since the start, is on the way to breaking its record for retirements.
And three which makes forty. Already forty, one might say. On the evening of the 12th stage, won this Thursday between Bra and Rivoli by the German Nico Denz (Bora-Hansgrohe), this Giro shows an impressive number of abandonments. If this continues, the record could even be broken, all editions combined. Of the 176 runners who set off on May 6 from Fossacesia, the location of the Grand Départ of this 106th edition, nearly a quarter are no longer part of the race before the 13th stage. Thursday morning, 139 riders made up the peloton. This Thursday evening, at the end of the 12th stage, there are only 136 left. While the Italian Alessandro Covi (UAE Team Emirates) did not start Thursday morning, the Australian sprinter Kaden Groves (Alpecin- Deceuninck), winner of the 5th stage of this Tour of Italy, threw in the towel, ill, after about thirty kilometers, imitated a little later by the Belgian Harm Vanoucke (DSM), also reduced by a virus.
Only three teams…
It’s very simple, after 17 days of racing, only three teams out of the 22 competing in this Giro can boast this Thursday evening of still presenting a full squad. These are Astana Qazaqstan, Bahrain-Victorious and the Jumbo – Visma formation dear to Primoz Roglic, propelled favorite after the abandonment (again) of the immense favorite Remco Evenepoel. The Belgian prodigy of the Soudal-Quick Step team had suffered a positive test for Covid-19. The Covid has also continued to do its thing and penalize other teams. The many crashes also explain this rather incredible number of retirements while there are still ten days of racing left. Moreover, the little game of the moment in the peloton, Ouest France tells us, quoting François Bidard of the Cofidis team, consists of betting on the number of riders who will manage to reach Rome. As it’s gone, there shouldn’t be many of them. Because if all the roads are known to lead to the Italian capital, it is not said that they are a large number to take them on May 28th.
